Department for Transport shelves 23 road schemes after regional review

Fifteen road schemes have been blocked and a further eight put on hold in the Department for Transport’s (DfT) long-awaited statement on regional transport funding for the next 10 years.

The biggest loser is Laing O’Rourke, after the £85m A1 upgrade in Northumberland was given the chop. The contractor had been awarded the Highways Agency (HA) job a year ago.

“The regions have looked at priorities and against wider objectives… they have concluded that some schemes that had previously been approved are not their highest priorities,” said transport secretary Douglas Alexander.

Six of the schemes rejected were from the HA’s Targeted Programme of Improvements and nine were local authority schemes. Alexander said all other schemes previously approved “are expect to progress”, though eight will be to “significantly different timescales”.

Of the roads approved, the biggest was the £320m A3 improvement scheme at Hindhead. Balfour Beatty had been awarded the ECI deal, which includes a 1.7km tunnel under the Devil’s Punchbowl, back in 2002. Its value then was estimated at £123m.

The £520m Manchester Metrolink extension got the green light, as did the £116m Cambridge guided busway.

Alexander also approved 17 new schemes put forward by the regions and said he expected “at least a further 90 schemes to be added to the programme over the next 10 years”.

This is the first time the regions have been consulted on long-term transport planning. The DfT instructed the eight regional transport boards (RTBs) to submit a list of road and transport schemes they wanted building back in January, though its response had been expected in May.

Alexander said he intended “to seek views widely on how the process might be further enhanced. Taking those views into account, I expect to seek further formal advice on transport priorities within the next two years.”

A spokesman for the Civil Engineering Contractors’ Association welcomed the “positive announcements” regarding the approved schemes, but said: “They do not include the detailed spending profile that we would look for in something that is being sold as a Ten Year Plan.”

He added: “Setting priorities at a regional level has been an interesting experience and we are keen to add our views to any consultation on how this might go forward.”