ROAD CONSTRUCTION NOW "VIRTUALLY CERTAIN" TO GO AHEAD

This article discusses some possible directions for the road building policy of the UK Government; it includes a map of English roads. After the publication of the UK's 10 Year Transport Plan in July 2000, transport planning experts claimed that road schemes, being considered by the Government's multi-modal studies, would almost certainly proceed. Traffic modelling in the plan shows that 30 trunk road bypasses and 70 local bypasses are needed to reduce traffic congestion in general by 6% and on inter-urban routes by 13% by 2010. However, the head of the plan at the Highways Agency (HA) pointed out that there was still uncertainty over which schemes would be implemented. Ministers are said to have argued strongly over whether the plan should have included a target figure for bypasses, and the director of Transport 2000 was angry that the 100 bypasses target was included. He viewed this as a reversal of previous Government policy that road schemes should be considered as a 'last option'. The article lists the confirmed and 'probable' road construction and road widening schemes. The 10 Year Transport Plan also includes plans to cut three to five years from the average ten-year interval between the beginning of public consultation about a scheme and the start of on-site construction.