Smart motorways are to be abandoned following concerns about their safety and cost, according to sources involved in the £3bn construction project.
The Government paused the introduction of all new routes at the beginning of last year while a review into the operation of the existing smart motorways was carried out. The i newspaper reports that the rest of the project, involving new roads in Greater Manchester, the Pennines and London, has now been shelved for the foreseeable future.
Senior industry sources involved in the project have been instructed it is to be scaled back significantly, and one contractor said they had been told that the future planned routes had been abandoned.
They said: “We’re no longer expecting any new smart motorways. Financial pressure on the Government, alongside the unpopularity of the scheme, makes it seem untenable going forward”. An update on the future of smart motorways will be set out shortly, Government insiders have said.
Multiple sources in the Department for Transport said there was no immediate prospect of the smart motorways scheme being restarted but insisted that a final decision on whether or not it should be scrapped completely had not yet been made.
Rishi Sunak is expected to have the final say following talks between No 10 officials and the team of Transport Secretary, Mark Harper. The Prime Minister pledged during the Conservative Party leadership election last year to ban smart motorways.
He said at the time: “Smart motorways are unpopular because they are unsafe. We need to listen to drivers, be on their side and stop with the pursuit of policies that go against common sense.”
Smart motorways, which have no hard shoulder and rely on technology to detect breakdowns and close affected lanes, have been blamed for a number of deaths since they started to be introduced. They have been strongly criticised by MPs in Parliament, with Conservative MP and former transport minister Sir Mike Penning describing the policy as “disastrous”.
This week, a coroner ruled that the death of two pensioners in 2019 could have been avoided if the motorway had a hard shoulder. Concluding an inquiry into the deaths of Derek Jacobs, 83 and Charles Scripps, 78, assistant coroner Susan Evans told Chesterfield Coroner’s Court: “Smart motorways are hugely controversial because of the lack of any hard shoulder for motorists to use in times of need such as occurred here.
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Claire Mercer, whose husband Jason was killed on a smart motorway in 2019, said last year that regulatory bodies had little they could do other than pay lip service to victims. Ms Mercer said: “The problem is that none of these bodies or organisations can do anything except recommend.
"We’ve got lots of people recommending, we’ve got lots of people talking about this – we need someone to actually do. They know how dangerous these are, they’ve looked into them so many times now.”
A Government spokesman said: “Safety on our roads remains an absolute priority and we want all drivers to feel safe and confident while driving. We have paused the rollout of smart motorways that are yet to begin construction and we will update on next steps in due course. During the pause, we have committed £900m for safety improvements across the network, including building more emergency areas.”
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