Local MP, Steve Brine, has welcomed the pause on the rollout of all lane running motorways, otherwise known as ‘smart motorways’. Following the recent Transport Committee report, the Government will pause the rollout of smart motorway schemes until 5 years' worth of safety data is available.
Further to the pause the Secretary of State for Transport, Grant Shapps, has also confirmed the following actions;
- Pause the conversion of dynamic hard shoulder smart motorways to ALR until the next Road Investment Strategy
- Retrofit more emergency areas across existing ALR schemes
- Conduct an independent evaluation of the effectiveness of stopped vehicle detection technology
- Explore the introduction of the emergency corridor manoeuvre to the Highway Code
- Investigate the benefits of health and safety assessments being undertaken by the Office of Rail and Road.
Speaking to the Hampshire Chronicle Steve Brine, whose constituency contains one of the busiest stretches of the M3 that was due to be converted, said; “This is absolutely the right thing to do, but I am pressing Ministers promptly because the cost and disruption already involved in, not even finishing our stretch of the M3, is piling up.
I have asked the Secretary of State to come here as I want to understand how we can turn that around and avoid any more wasted taxpayers money going towards a dangerous new motorway configuration through the heart of this area.”
More information ...
The full government announcement in relation to this can be found here.
