M6 Toll road extension scrapped amid cost fears

Plans to extend the M6 Toll road have been scrapped amid government fears that the new scheme would be too expensive. Instead, the current M6 is to be widened, adding an extra lane in each direction, with the project due to be complete by 2017.

In a statement, transport minister Stephen Ladyman said the Highways Agency had carried out a detailed review of the option of building a new tolled expressway parallel to the M6 between junctions 11a and 19, as an alternative to widening the existing M6. "We have carried out detailed analysis and the extra works and land required and the cost do not support further work on the expressway."

The report found that the expressway would be more difficult and time-consuming to construct than initially thought. It would require 50% more land than widening the current M6, would cost £3.5bn - 15% more - and would also cause significant disruption to the existing M6.

* The £371m A3 improvement scheme at Hindhead in Surrey looks set to get the go-ahead after key government departments said they were "minded to accept" an official inspectors report. The final decision rests on the responses to a limited consultation exercise, which will focus on the fact that the scheme has been subject to a "significant" cost increase since the close of a local inquiry in February 2005. At that point, the scheme was estimated to cost £240m; this has now risen to £371m.

However, the HA says the published scheme "still remains good value for money, with an unchanged economic benefit-cost ratio".

[Contract Journal, 26 July 2006, p. 2]