Ministers have pledged to take ‘next steps’ within the next six months on 55 improvement schemes in the current Road Investment Strategy (RIS) worth a total of £6.1bn.
The Government will also ‘shortly’ be announcing the winners of the 2017/18 highways maintenance challenge fund, which is worth £75m to local authorities.
The Department for Transport (DfT) said that next steps to be taken on road improvement schemes in the coming six months include opening eight schemes, consulting on 10 schemes and publishing final plans for another 29.
New roads minister Jesse Norman said: ‘Road users across England should soon be seeing the benefits of these improvements in their daily lives, which are designed to link people better with their jobs, friends, family and local amenities, as well as connecting businesses with customers.
‘And shortly I also plan to announce the winners of the 2017 to 2018 highways maintenance challenge fund, where the government will be investing £75m to improve smaller local roads including through resurfacing, filling potholes and other infrastructure projects.’
Steve Gooding, director of the RAC Foundation, said: ‘The first five-year road investment strategy reassured millions of drivers and businesses that their long-term travel needs were at last being taken seriously and provided for. But the fear has always been that road programmes, like the morning mists, have a tendency to fade away before our eyes.
‘This latest unveiling is therefore a particularly welcome demonstration that the promised money is not only available but is being spent on schemes that really matter, and that our calls to remember the local roads — where our journeys begin and end — are being heard.’
Schemes progressed today include the route for the new A19 Downhill Lane junction which the DfT said will support a new international manufacturing park by significantly increasing road capacity, easing traffic and improving safety.
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