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Transport
minister Alistair Darling has today announced a £1.29 billion package of
schemes to widen Yorkshire's motorways. The M1 between Chesterfield and
Leeds is in for a complete overhaul along with the M62 between Leeds and
Huddersfield.
Both motorway stretches
will be widened to 8 lane superhighways as part of a nationwide package of
improvement for the country's worst travel bottlenecks.
Announcing the investment
Alistair Darling said, "The Government is committed to improving the
strategic road network and to providing extra capacity where it is needed.
The M1 and M62 are two of Britain's most important routes and these schemes
will support regeneration across the North of England, improve the
reliability of journey times and ease congestion for road users. These
improvements will bring reduced congestion, quicker and more reliable
journeys, and improved safety".
"Both schemes will be
built within existing highway limits minimising the impact on the
environment and surrounding communities, and will bring real benefits to
traffic".
"M1 (Chesterfield to
Leeds) and M62 (Huddersfield to Leeds) Covering approximately 50 miles,
these sections of motorway are among the busiest in the country. Where
possible the new lanes will be created within the existing motorway
boundaries, using land from the central reservation and the edge of the hard
shoulder.
his innovative
approach could enable work to begin work on a number of sections of these
routes relatively quickly and without the need to acquire land."
Some parts of the
upgraded M1 and M62 could be used as high occupancy vehicle lanes, while
measures may also be introduced to control traffic flow at entry slip roads.
Leedsconstructionlink.co.uk. |
