New smart motorway plans being scrapped

The government has announced that it will halt construction of all new smart highways due to cost and safety concerns.

Of the 14 planned schemes, 11 are already suspended and 3 are under construction but will be canceled due to financial conditions and low public confidence.

Smart highways are roads where technology is used to regulate traffic flow and reduce congestion.

They also use the shoulder as an extra lane, which critics claim has led to road fatalities.

The existing smart highways, which make up 10% of England’s motorway network, will remain intact and receive previously announced safety upgrades to create a further 150 emergency stopping locations and improved technology.

“Every driver deserves confidence in the roads they use to get around the country,” said Prime Minister Rishisnak, who pledged to ban smart highways during a leadership campaign.

The Ministry of Transport has said the new plan will cost more than £1 billion and that canceling the plan will give it more time to track public confidence in smart highways over the longer term.

Seven of the 14 canceled projects were to convert highways to “all-lane” roads, permanently removing hard shoulders.

These remain ‘dynamic’ smart highways that can open up the hard shoulders as additional lanes during busy hours.

Construction of two stretches of the Smart Motorway, junctions 6 to 8 of the M56 and 21a to 26 of the M6, will continue as they are already more than three-quarters complete.

Smart highways have been developed to create more capacity and reduce road congestion without spending money or causing disruption to news construction.

However, they have been criticized by lawmakers and road safety agencies, including the AA and RAC.

There are three main types:

All three models use an overhead gantry to guide the driver. Variable speed limits are introduced to control the flow of traffic in heavy traffic or when there are dangers ahead. These limits are controlled by the speed camera.

Claire Mercer, whose husband died on South Yorkshire’s Smart Highway in 2019, welcomed the move but pledged to continue campaigning to ensure the hard shoulders return on all roads.

Jason Mercer and another man, Alexandre Murugeanu, were killed after being hit by a lorry after coming to a stop in the inside lane of a smart highway after a minor collision in an M1 near Sheffield.

Mrs Mercer said:

“While this is good news, it’s clearly what’s already killing us, and I’m not happy about adding emergency shelters.”

Mrs Mercer’s MP Sarah Champion of Labor’s Rotherham said she was relieved the government had listened to motorists.

But she said she would like to know if the plans currently under construction will be revived and why the ban has taken so long despite government reviews and reports from two parliamentary special committees. rice field.

AA President Edmund King said: “There are enough coroners to hand out fatal and heartbreaking sentences when the deaths are caused by a lack of vigilance.

“We are pleased that the government has finally listened and that the deployment of smart highways has been discontinued … We also hope that the hard shoulder will be restored to existing stretches in due time.”

“Today’s announcement means that new smart highways will not be built, recognizing the lack of public confidence that drivers feel and the cost pressures from inflation,” said Transportation Secretary Mark Harper. .

The following plans have been canceled.

All new lanes on smart highways

Conversion from dynamic hard shoulder to all lane running

M4-M5 Interchange (M4 Junction 19-20 and M5 Junction 15-17)

M1 Junction 35A-39 Sheffield to Wakefield

M6 Junction 19- 21A Knutsford to Croft