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Highways England Launch £27 Billion Investment to Improve UK Roads
28 August 2020
Highways England has announced its plans to invest a total of £27.4 billion into improving the UK’s strategic road network. The project will support 64,000 jobs in the wake of the recent lockdown.
Chief Executive of Highways England, Jim O’Sullivan, said, “Our network is a vital part of everyone’s life. It has served the country well during the pandemic, keeping supermarket shelves stocked and enabling key workers to get where they need to be.
“Over the next five years we will increase capacity where it is most needed and continue to upgrade more of the network which has suffered from decades of under-investment.
“We now have a strong track record of delivering new schemes and operating the network for the benefit of our customers and the communities we serve. The plan we’re launching today will protect and create jobs to aid the nation’s recovery and make journeys faster and more reliable for freight and road users”.
The funding will be divided across various projects as follows:
£14 billion toward quality, capacity and safety improvements for motorways and major A roads.
£11 billion towards general road repairs and replacement of sections of the road network, the majority of which were built in the 1960’s and 70’s.
£1.4 billion toward the recent project along the A14 between Cambridge and Huntingdon, which was completed eight months ahead of this announcement.
Highways England went on to say that ‘Today’s plans set out how Highways England will deliver the Government’s second Road Investment Strategy announced during the Budget in March 2020. The organisation will:
Open more than 50 highway upgrades and save millions of hours by improving journey times.
Invest almost £1 billion on broader projects to improve roads for the communities they serve, such as conserving cultural heritage or strengthening flood resilience, and improving access for walkers, cyclists and horse riders.
Make 7,500 households quieter by tackling noise from roads.
Help stop the loss of biodiversity.
Develop a pipeline of around 30 schemes for potential construction post 2025.
The announcement listed several of the projects that will come under this funding, including:
A new road and tunnel under the Thames between Essex and Kent, adding capacity and speeding up journeys between the Channel ports and the rest of the country, which will improve access to jobs, housing, leisure and retail facilities on both sides of the river.
Upgrading the A66, creating the first new Trans-Pennine dual carriageway since 1971, improving connections between ports in Scotland and Northern Ireland and those in England at Hull and Felixstowe.
Improving the major direct route between the South East and South West including a tunnel near the Stonehenge World Heritage Site.
Resurfacing nearly 5,000 lane miles of road.
Installing or renew more than 1,000 miles of safety barriers on motorways and dual carriageways.
Renewing more than 170 bridges and other structures.
Investing £300-400 million replacing ageing concrete sections on the A14, M5, M18, M20, M42, M54 and M56.
We at Marshall Leasing are pleased to see the continued efforts made by Highways England to improve our road quality and safety. If you would like further information about our fleet hire services, please do not hesitate to contact us on 01480 414541.
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