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UK in for 14-lane monster motorways?

Congestion has been hitting the news recently, with reports of under-investment causing the transport infrastructure to creak and charging schemes being introduced in London and possibly other cities to reduce urban congestion. Nowhere is congestion more frustrating that on Britain's busy motorways, which often crawl along at a pace more suited to a suburban street than a cross-country dash. However, a new report is proposing that the government pour money into the motorway network and build a series of monster motorways that are up to 14 lanes wide.

The studies, which were commissioned by the government, are to recommend that the giant highways be built around London and also to link the capital with key areas in the North of the country, with the bulk of the new highways being ten lanes wide in width. The main roads that could benefit would be the M1, the M6 and the M42. Most of the M25 will eventually be widened to 10 lanes, with the busiest intersections - those with the M3 and M4 - possibly being extended to 7 lanes in each direction.

The extra lanes would be added by widening the existing roads and also by adding local access motorways. These could run alongside 'long-distance' motorways and allow local drivers to access high speed roads without adding to traffic on the trans-national routes.

A source at Transport 2000 said: "All this will mean a change in what motorways are. Ten lanes and even 14 lanes in some cases will involve a huge landtake. Large scale motorway building is now firmly back on the agenda."