England's Road Network To Get Â£15bn Investment

England's Road Network To Get £15bn Investment

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More than 80 new road projects have been unveiled as part of a £15bn plan to improve English motorways and trunk routes over the next five years.

Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin called it "the biggest, boldest and most far-reaching roads programme for decades".

The schemes include a tunnel at the notorious bottleneck on the A303 at Stonehenge - welcomed as "truly momentous" by English Heritage.

Some £1.5bn would be spent on extra lanes on some motorways under the plans.

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Gallery: Road Map: Project Locations

Some 84 new road projects have been revealed. Blue arrows indicate motorways, yellow show A-roads. Pic: Department of Transport

A map showing some of the main routes that will be improved

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Improvements to M25 junctions, the A27 in Sussex, approaches to Liverpool and the A1 in the North East are also part of the Road Investment Strategy, which was revealed ahead of the Autumn Statement on Wednesday.

David Cameron said: "We've managed the nation's finances carefully, the money is there in the budget - this will go ahead.

"It makes sense to spend money on long-term investment, things that will make our economy grow faster and spread prosperity to every part of our country."

The projects include:

:: South West - £2bn dual carriageway for entire A303 and A358, including a tunnel at Stonehenge.

:: North East - £290m dual carriageway on A1 to Ellingham.

:: North West and Yorkshire - M62 from Manchester to Leeds will have lanes increased, and increased capacity on trans-Pennine routes between Manchester and Sheffield.

:: North West - links to Port of Liverpool improved.

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Gallery: Britain's Notorious Traffic Delay Blackspots

The A4 between Aldwych and Henleys Corner in London

The M25 between junction 10 and 15, the interchange with the M4

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The M6 between junction 7 Birmingham (North) and junction 10 Wolverhampton East

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:: South East - £350m improvement to A27 to tackle congestion at Arundel, Worthing and Lewes.

:: East - £300m to put in dual carriageway sections on A47 and improved connections to A1 and A11.

:: London and South East - A third of junctions on M25 to be improved.

:: Midlands - Improvements to M42 east of Birmingham, and improved connections to Birmingham airport, National Exhibition Centre, Enterprise Zone and High Speed 2 interchange station.

There would also be £100m of funding to improve cycling provision at 200 key locations, and a £300m environmental fund to combat carbon emission and reduce noise pollution.

But Labour dismissed the plan as a "re-announcement".

"The Government has 'announced' plans for road investment at least three times since 2013 and no additional money has been announced," said shadow transport secretary Michael Dugher.

"Barely a shovel has been used in anger on our nation's highways over the last four-and-a-half years."

There has also been an accusation that two-thirds of the improvements would come in Tory or Lib Dem areas.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg denied the locations had been selected for "short-term political reasons" and pointed to plans across Labour strongholds in the Pennines.

He told Sky News: "You don't make decisions like this based on a political map, you make these decisions based on the economic map and the geographic layout of our county to make sure that all parts of our country are properly linked."

Motoring groups welcomed the proposals.

AA president Edmund King said: "We can no longer ignore the inadequate resources going into the mainstay of the UK transport system - our roads - which carry 86% of passenger journeys and more than 90% of freight.

"At long last the Government has recognised that we need a long-term coherent plan for our roads."

While also welcoming the plans, the RAC said the number of road users would leap from 36 million to 43 million over the next 20 years if current trends persist.

Its director, Professor Stephen Glaister, said the country faced "massive challenges in unclogging our urban areas".

Friends of the Earth believes the Government's road plan will make the problem worse, not better.

"Once again UK transport policy is heading in the wrong direction," said senior campaigner Jane Thomas.

"Tackling congestion by building or widening roads was discredited decades ago.

"Investment in transport is urgently needed, but the priority must be better trains, buses and cycling facilities, not an expensive road-building programme that will cause more traffic and air pollution and make it harder to tackle climate change."

:: Watch Sky News for the Chancellor's Autumn Statement live on Wednesday, 3 December, on Sky channel 501, Virgin Media channel 602, Freeview channel 132 and Freesat channel 202.

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