Skip to main content

UK reveals major road investment plans

The UK has major plans to invest in road infrastructure. In all some 1,440 lane km of road capacity will be added to the strategic highway network of England and Wales by 2021. This boost comes from an investment of €30.565 billion (£24 billion), the biggest since the 1970s – which will see annual funding for improvements to motorways and major A roads triple over the next 6 years.
September 5, 2014 Read time: 1 min

The UK has major plans to invest in road infrastructure. In all some 1,440 lane km of road capacity will be added to the strategic highway network of England and Wales by 2021. This boost comes from an investment of €30.565 billion (£24 billion), the biggest since the 1970s – which will see annual funding for improvements to motorways and major A roads triple over the next 6 years. Investment includes more than €11.345 billion (£9 billion) on maintenance, €7.564 billion (£6 billion) of which will be spent on resurfacing 5,000km of the strategic road network. This forms part of a long-term economic plan intended to deliver around 35% more capacity on UK roads than was delivered in the nine years up to 2010. The UK Government will triple investment in major roads to over €3.782 billion (£3 billion)/year up to 2021.

Related Content

  • Road safety’s slow gain in Europe
    June 27, 2018
    Europe is seeing an improvement in road safety, but at a slower rate than hoped for. Official data shows that 25,250 people were killed in road crashes in the EU during 2017, a 2% drop from the figure recorded for 2016. Furthermore, road deaths have dropped just 3% in the last four years in the EU, with casualty reduction targets not being met. There are 32 countries listed in the PIN programme intended to cut road deaths and 22 of these nations did record improvements in road safety. Estonia managed to
  • US transportation plan being developed?
    February 24, 2015
    In the US, the Obama administration is beginning work on a 30-year transportation plan to meet US infrastructure needs. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, commented in an interview with the Washington Post. “Transportation is a system of systems,” Foxx said, rather than the aggregate of separate systems that can be addressed individually. “The idea that we’re looking at the system comprehensively is the thrust of this report.” He said the report, which will be followed by a formal comment period, is int
  • PPRS Nice 2018: maintenance moves mountains
    June 22, 2018
    Strategic maintenance was a major theme at the second Pavement Preservation and Recycling Summit in Nice, France. The world is changing, mobility is changing and so roads must change and adapt for the future.” With this brief statement, Jacques Tavernier opened the second PPRS Summit. “At the same time there is a growing awareness of poor or non-existent maintenance for highways. The question for this conference is how to adapt road maintenance in the face of this challenge,” said Tavernier, in his role as
  • Iran is boosting its transport infrastructure
    October 24, 2012
    Iran is investing heavily in boosting its transport infrastructure in a bid to boost its economy. The country has plans to build 5,000km of highways and 10,000km of main roads at present. During the first six months of 2012 the country has opened 850km of new roads to traffic. Iran’s Transportation Infrastructure Construction and Development Company plans to boost the road network of the country by 18,000km in all, as well as to build 11,000km of new railways.