The Government has confirmed that it is scrapping the building of smart motorways amid concerns over safety and financial considerations
Smart motorways earmarked for construction between 2025 and 2030 and previously paused schemes will now not go ahead,Downing Street has confirmed
Initial estimations suggest constructing future smart motorway schemes would have cost more than £1 billion and cancelling these schemes will allow more time to track public confidence in smart motorways over a longer period.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said:
All drivers deserve to have confidence in the roads they use to get around the country.
That’s why last year I pledged to stop the building of all new smart motorways, and today I’m making good on that promise.
Many people across the country rely on driving to get to work, to take their children to school and go about their daily lives and I want them to be able to do so with full confidence that the roads they drive on are safe.
Independent road safety campaigner, Meera Naran, whose 8-year-old son Dev, died in a motorway collision on the M6 in 2018, said:
Since successfully campaigning for the 18-point action plan, £900 million commitment and the pause in the roll out in January 2022, there has been a lot of joined up thinking in mutually coming to this decision.
I thank ministers and executives for inviting me to work alongside them in memory of Dev, towards a mutual goal and for their commitment over the years.
Construction of two stretches of smart motorway at junctions six to eight of the M56 and 21a to 26 of the M6 will continue as they are already more than three quarters complete.
