Highways
UK Nixes $1.2B in Planned 'Smart Motorway' Work
The U.K. has already eliminated hard shoulders from about 170 miles of England's main motorways.
Photo courtesy of U.K. Dept. for Transport
After a series of high-profile fatal accidents, the U.K. Dept. for Transport has scrapped plans to roll out $1.2 billion worth of additional “smart motorways.” However, the government will retain the existing network and complete new projects already in progress.
“No new smart motorways will be built, recognizing the lack of public confidence felt by drivers and the cost pressures due to inflation,” says Transport Secretary Mark Harper.
Controversially, the U.K. government has been increasing highway capacity by converting motorways’ emergency “hard shoulders” to traffic lanes. Overhead signals are meant to indicate obstructions and the highways include short emergency refuge areas, generally at 1.5-mile intervals.
Hard shoulders have been eliminated from around 170 miles, or 9%, of England’s main motorways since 2014. Fourteen additional projects planned for the next seven years have been canceled. But work already started to convert long stretches of two major motorways, the M56 and M6, will continue.
While welcoming the announcement, the government should go further, according to Edmund King, president of the AA Ltd., a U.K. automobile users’ association.
“We would like to see the hard shoulder reinstated on the current smart motorways,” he said. “If there’s a lack of confidence for the future surely there’s a lack of confidence in what currently is out there.”
According to a House of Commons Transport Committee report in 2021, there were 1.24 serious casualties per 100-million vehicle miles on smart motorways with no hard shoulders, compared with 1.12 on conventional highways.
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