I have three stories and a commentary piece in the latest issue of Local Transport Today, with the connecting theme being that neither the government nor National Highways are covering themselves in glory when it comes to planning capital spending on England’s roads.
The main angle of a piece (also on TransportXtra) on the various reports on National Highways that get published at this time of year is that the company isn’t in the best shape to deliver an expanded renewals programme as the third Road Investment Strategy (RIS3) begins.
National Highways must improve its governance to ensure the efficient delivery of the new Road Investment Strategy (RIS3), the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) has stated.
The regulator criticised the company for not taking full advantage of the opportunities to get ready for RIS3, “meaning there is an increased risk to delivery”, and called for it to demonstrate how it will strengthen its planning and controls to manage the higher level of funding and activity.
A comment piece alongside this story notes the continuing movement of goalposts on what National Highways is supposed to deliver under the RIS framework, including ministers shelving two major schemes within months of the document being published.
I also note that the company has itself diluted what it is required to do in relation to both air quality and casualty reduction, with no KPI at all in the first case and a meaningless one in the second.
Continuing the theme of backtracking on plans in the RIS, I report that:
National Highways has distanced itself from plans for a new strategic route between the M4 in Wiltshire and the Dorset coast, which relied on a proposed new bypass for the historic city of Salisbury that has since been ruled out.
I found this quite a difficult situation to interpret, with the company saying simultaneously that “there will be no revision” of the recommendations of the study than recommended the route and that the preferred route recommendation is “subject to further review by government and other stakeholders”.
But the underlying message is that there will have to be a major rethink before any major works are taken forward – and that could well be 10 years off.
Finally, I cover the story that I have covered a lot on this blog – that 26 local road upgrade schemes are in limbo, having missed out on the list of schemes that the Department for Transport (DfT) said “will continue” after a review but with the DfT refusing to admit just yet that they have shuffled off their mortal coils.
One response to “Road investment planning goes out the window”
-
With a stroke of the pen NH and the DfT could afford what are probably very useful and necessary schemes by cancelling the chronic continuing waste of money on the Lower Thames Crossing. Even if it was to be useful, a predictable outcome will be like HS2 with costs rising and rising and cutbacks on promised environmental issues (eg. the low carbon concrete) and for the massive delays to car and goods vehicles during construction – this is a given like the 3 year chaos for the A3/M25 junction works.
A second stroke of the pen would be restoring the hard shoulder of the M25 and other ‘(un)smart’ motorways. This would reduce the pressure on Dartford Crossing and may deliver the accident savings that NH are supposed to deliver. It would also allow emergency vehicles to reach incidents and injuries reducing overall delays and improving reliabilty. Effective average speed limits on the M25 would also help immeasurably and would have a secondary effect of reducing traffic demand.
While Thurrock and Havering councils have recognised the chaos that the extra crossing will cause north of the Thames, Kent County council has missed the point on the M2 east of Gillingham which will then effectively be the main route to the Channel ports rather than the M20. Anybody reading this from KCC urgently needs to consider this (and change its stance on the LTC) rather than asking for DfT to spend a lot of money tinkering with the A229 and its junction with the M2.
LikeLike
Transport Insights 
Leave a comment