Government launches consultation on which roads to include in new Major Road Network.



‘Key ‘A’ roads across the country could benefit from up to £100 million each of funding as government releases consultation on the Major Roads Network (MRN) today (23 December 2017).

The MRN consultation proposes that 5,000 miles of ‘A’ road - that’s over 20 times the length of the UK’s longest motorway - are brought into scope for new funding from the National Roads Fund for upgrades and improvements.

Upgrade schemes which could be considered are:

bypasses
missing links between existing routes
road widening
major junction improvements
the use of technological and safety enhancements along stretches of the network
Under the proposals in the consultation, each successful bid will be eligible for up to £100 million of government funding under the proposals and will help cut congestion, unlock housing and boost economic growth.




For decades, these major local roads have been underfunded and not properly maintained.

We are spending record amounts on improving our roads and we want more of our busiest roads to benefit from guaranteed investment.

This will unlock no end of benefits for communities by improving motorists’ journeys, taking traffic away from built up areas, as well as enabling new housing to be built and creating jobs.

The consultation on the ‘A’ roads which will make up the MRN and the level of funding per scheme starts today and will last 12 weeks.

See a map of what the MRN may look like.

It is planned that a review of the MRN will mirror the planned investment in the strategic road network - motorways and large A roads managed by Highways England. This means improvements on both networks will deliver more benefits for users.

Under the proposals, road upgrades will be developed by councils and, where possible, sub-national transport bodies - a regional body which influences funding decisions such as Transport for the North - meaning they will be designed by the areas to deliver the best solutions for their roads.

From 2020 the National Roads Fund will be paid for by Vehicle Excise Duty, which raised about £6 billion last year.

update Ince Woods ?

A better road to Preston wouldn’t go amiss.

There are something like 350 local authorities in England.

This is such ridiculous political spin that Grayling will only get away with it because we are all more interested in Christmas. £100 million a year? The Heysham bypass alone was reported to have cost £128million and we wonder why Lancashire roads are in such a state.

Southport has its own bypass,as drivers simply turn Left at Tarleton lights,and then carry on through to Ormskirk,and beyond to Liverpool,that way it bypasses Southport completely.

Tories are amazing at holding consultations, "listening to the public" cough, cough, but when it comes to actually doing something, whoa, slow down there, must evaluate and cost this project, spend a few £million on consultancy firms, then check out if any Tory funders can see a profit in the job, eventually the scheme will then get the go ahead and be announced with major publicity.

Unfortunately in the small print the starting date on this project will be so far in the future that most will not even remember the scheme existed, of course in the meantime maintenance on existing roads will be shelved as we will "shortly" have a whole new road complex.