Source · Select Committees · Transport Committee
Recommendation 2
2
Paragraph: 16
We welcome the Department’s acceleration of safety improvements to all-lane running motorways and acknowledge that...
Recommendation
We welcome the Department’s acceleration of safety improvements to all-lane running motorways and acknowledge that the current Secretary of State for Transport and Minister for Roads have, upon their appointment, taken steps to address safety and delivery failures on all-lane running motorways. However, it is regrettable that the Government should find itself in this position. Safety risks on all- lane running motorways, such as those raised by the Transport Committee in 2016, should have been addressed before those motorways were rolled out.
Paragraph Reference:
16
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
13. The Government agrees with this recommendation and will immediately pause the roll-out of ALR smart motorway schemes yet to commence construction until five-years of safety data is available for ALR motorways introduced before 2020. 14. Despite the evidence provided by the Government and the implementation of actions from the Stocktake and Action Plan, the Committee’s recommendation suggests that more needs to be done to demonstrate the safety case for ALR smart motorways and that further data is required to inform future decisions on enhancing capacity on the SRN. 15. As such, we will immediately pause the roll-out of ALR schemes yet to commence construction. This includes the M3 J9–14, M40/M42 interchange, the M62 J20–25, and the M25 J10–16. At some of these locations, we will continue to invest in additional safety measures by making improvements to the central reservation. 16. We will complete schemes already in construction given they are all over 50% complete. In addition, leaving Traffic Management in place for the duration of the pause would lead to significant disruption to the travelling public and could potentially lead to drivers using less safe A-roads. 17. The schemes currently in construction will have SVD technology in place when opened as well as some additional Emergency Areas (EAs), where possible.