The aim is to turn some roads into 'smart' motorways
Over 80 new road schemes, which includes the plan top tunnel under Stonehenge has been announced today and is set to be the most far reaching road in decades.
The initiative is going to cost £15 billion, which is forecast to last till 2021 and looks to make improvements to the M25, the A27 in Sussex and the A1 in the North East of the UK. The RAC has predicted that there will be an additional 7 million road users in England and Wales within the next 20 years, which takes the grand total up to 43 million and so has encouraged these changes.
The most prominent plan is to spend £2 billion to make the A303 into a corridor to the south west. This will be achieved by building a 1.8 mile dual carriageway tunnel under Stonehenge.
The link for the M3 to Devon is affetionately called the ‘holiday trail’ and is well known for its traffic jams as families raring to go on their holidays to the English Riviera and beyond are often held back. The changes are expected to help road users to drive on a dual carriage way from London to within 15 miles of Land’s End.
£1.5 billion has been set aside for putting extra lanes in motorways making them ‘smart’, so the management of traffic will be easier and there will be better links between London, Birmingham, Manchester and Yorkshire.
Patrick McLoughlin, the transport secretary, said this was “the biggest, boldest and most far-reaching roads programme for decades”. Officials say nothing compares to this level of improvement since motorway building programme was completed in 1970s.
When it comes to Stonehenge however there are a few people who have their doubts over the development such as archaeologists, wildlife enthusiasts, druids and drivers.
The Stonehenge Alliance has been campaigning for a longer tunnel. Kate Fielden, an archaeologist and member of the alliance, said English Heritage and the trust should not be looking to save money, only what was best for the site. “The bottom line is that the tunnel and portals are going to be an irreversible change in the landscape. We need to think really big on this.”
John Cridland, director-general of the Confederation of British Industry, recently called the A303 “a glorified car park” and said that the government should simply ‘get on with’ making the road bigger.
In a joint statement, English Heritage and the National Trust said: “The existing A303 is highly detrimental … we will continue to work with the Department for Transport to identify a solution that both improves the world heritage site and is achievable, including a tunnel option.”
Danny Alexander, chief secretary to the Treasury and chair of the cabinet committee on infrastructure, said: “The dramatic upgrade of the A303 near Stonehenge will deliver the best for the future, whilst preserving the best from the past.”
The Department for Transport said the Stonehenge scheme was “at a very early stage” because it would have to go to consultation.