Expressways and wifi-connected roads to ease Britain's congestion

By Gill Plimmer and Aliya Ram

Britain's road network is to be brought into the modern age with wifi that can beam traffic information into cars, solar-powered noise barriers and new digital sensors that can monitor congestion.

The plans - included in a Highways Agency strategy document - are part of the biggest investment in Britain's roads since the 1970s and come amid complaints about poor road quality and the government's stop-start approach to funding.

The projects, worth a total of £15bn, include the transformation of 18 of the busiest A-roads into European style dual-lane expressways, with fewer roundabouts and traffic lights and new slip roads to encourage traffic flow. Slow moving vehicles such as tractors and bicycles may be banned. It is hoped that smarter use of the hard shoulder lane will boost capacity on motorways.

A 50-mile section of the A14 in Cambridgeshire will become the first internet-connected road, with a network of sensors that can monitor traffic by sending signals to and from mobile phones in moving cars. They will send information to a central traffic control system, which can communicate directly with drivers, sending them along diverted routes to avoid congestion.

Solar powered signs and barriers to protect local villages from traffic noise will also be trialled on the M40 in Buckinghamshire, with production and installation costs offset by their ability to generate electricity which can be plugged in to the National Grid.

Among the first routes to be converted into expressways would be the notoriously congested A303 to south west England, where a tunnel under Stonehenge - one of the world's most famous landmarks and Europe's most sensitive archaeological site - is already being considered.

Other contenders include the A30 from the junction with the M3 in Hampshire to Exeter in Devon; the A1 north of Newcastle; the A14 from Huntingdon to Cambridge; the A556 between the M56 and M6 in Cheshire; and the A46 between the A1 and M1 in the East Midlands.

Traffic on UK roads has more than doubled since 1976 and road quality has deteriorated after successive governments adopted a stop-start funding approach to Britain's main transport arteries. According to the Global Competitiveness Index, the nation's roads ranked 30th for quality in 2014 behind countries including France, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands.

Data from the National Audit Office earlier this week found that government expenditure on infrastructure - including maintenance as well as new projects - has fallen by around one-third since 2010. But funding to the strategic road network, which was cut sharply soon after the coalition came to power in 2010, has been restored since 2013.

The RAC warned that transport funding was not ringfenced by the government and said motorists would want certainty that these projects would be delivered regardless of who won the general election in May. It is called for more detail on timing.

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The Local Government Association, which is responsible for maintaining local roads in and near cities and towns, pointed to figures showing that every mile of the strategic road network would receive £1.4m funding compared with £31,000 for urban roads.

"Increasing motorway lanes and improving A-roads won't ease congestion, but will only speed up cars between growing delays and traffic jams on local roads," it said. "Whilst it would be unreasonable to expect parity of funding across all types of road, the current discrepancy makes little sense."

The plans have been revealed ahead of the Highways Agency's conversion into an independent state-owned company on April 1, affecting 3,500 staff. The restructuring is designed to encourage more long-term decision making for Britain's 4,300 miles of motorways and major trunk roads.

Safety will be a priority for the new organisation. Road deaths on the UK's motorways and major roads have almost halved from 204 in 2005 to 100 in 2013, driven by safer vehicles as well as improvements such as concrete barriers that reduce crossover into other lanes.

The soon to be rebranded agency said: "Innovation will be a major driving force behind everything that Highways England does over the next five years."

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