New road schemes announced
* Highways Agency plans for the next year * Up to 6 billion of investment * Major schemes for M25 and M6...
The Highways Agency is planning to spend up to 6 billion on improving England's roads over the next twelve months.
The agency's annual business plan, published today, reveals that it aims to start a number of major schemes, including widening the M25 between junctions 16-23 and 27-30.
The plans also include schemes to introduce hard-shoulder running on the M6 between junctions 10-13, the M1 between junctions 10-13, the M4 between junctions 9-10 and M5 junctions 15-17.
The new business plan also includes the Agency's first carbon-reduction targets.
It recently announced plans to switch off carriageway lighting on the M4 between junctions 21 and 22 near Bristol from March 26 and on the M5 between junctions 29 and 30 near Exeter from April 16 to reduce both light pollution and CO2 emissions.
Highways Agency chief executive Graham Dalton said: 'We now have a defined major roads programme for 2009-10 and beyond, which includes rolling out the innovative hard shoulder running and active traffic management schemes on key sections of our motorway network.
'This, in conjunction with conventional road improvement schemes, will deliver greater benefits for managing and operating the road network, making journeys more reliable and safer.'
