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Construction of the new smart highway has been canceled after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak acknowledged safety and cost concerns.
The 14 planned smart highways (including 11 already suspended and 3 slated for construction) have been removed from the government’s road construction plans, given the financial pressure and lack of public confidence. increase.
Campaigners welcomed the move, but demanded that the government immediately return the burden of existing converts.
The Ministry of Transport said the construction of these plans would cost more than £1 billion.
But the ministry added that construction of two sections of the smart highway at junctions 6 to 8 of the M56 and junctions 21a to 26 of the M6 will continue as more than three-quarters of them are already completed.
Existing stretches will remain but undergo safety retrofits to include an additional 150 emergency stop locations across the network.
About 10% of England’s motorway network consists of smart motorways.
They include various methods for managing traffic flow, such as converting hard shoulders into real driving lanes and changing speed limits.
However, there have been safety concerns for years after a deadly rear-end collision occurred with a vehicle parked in a moving lane.
In January 2022, the government suspended the expansion of highways whose hard shoulders are being used as permanent live traffic lanes.
This was to allow five years of data to be collected to assess whether it was safe for drivers.
During last summer’s Tory leadership campaign, Snack vowed to ban them.
“Every driver deserves confidence in the roads they use to travel around the country,” he said.
“That’s why last year I made a promise to stop building all new smart highways, and today I’m keeping that promise.
“Many people across the country rely on their cars to get to work, get their children to school, and carry on with their daily lives. I have complete confidence that the roads I drive on are safe. I want you to be able to drive with confidence.”
There is pressure on the government to scrap the route, and it has been criticized by road safety campaigners such as the MP, RAC and AA.
South Yorkshire’s smart highway widowed campaigner Claire Mercer welcomed the government’s move but pledged to continue to push for a return to difficult conditions on all roads.
She told PA News Agency:
“We are particularly pleased to confirm that during planning, the ongoing route was also canceled. I didn’t think they would do such a thing.
“While this is good news, it is clearly what we already have that is killing us.
“I mean, it’s half the battle, but there’s still half the battle left.”
Jason Mercer and another man, Alexandre Murugeanu, were killed in their M1 near Sheffield in 2019 after they crashed into a lorry and stopped in the inside lane of the Smart Motorway section after a minor collision. .
Sarah Champion, Labor MP for Mr Mercer’s Rotherham constituency, said:
“Is the government going to take a hard shoulder on existing converts? Will the schemes currently under construction be restored? Were the countless campaigns by the families of those who died in traps not enough to persuade them?”
AA President Edmund King said:
“I am pleased that the government has finally listened and the deployment of ‘smart’ highways has been discontinued…
“We also hope to eventually bring back the hard shoulders with existing stretches.”
“We want the public to know that this government is listening to their concerns,” said Transportation Secretary Mark Harper.
“Today’s announcement means that new smart highways will not be built in recognition of the lack of public confidence drivers are feeling and cost pressures from inflation.”
Press association additional coverage