The Highways Agency is inaccurately forecasting the impact its road building and widening schemes have on traffic, air quality, noise pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, Campaign for Better Transport (CBT) concludes in a new report.

In its study, the CBT also criticised the agency for failing to learn from past failures in accurate forecasting. Since Ministers are dependent on accurate forecasts from the agency to determine how best to spend public money on transport, the reports ‘need to be reliable’ the charity said.

The agency reviews its past trunk road projects after one and five years. The charity investigated four of the most recent five year reviews known as a POPE reports (post-opening project evaluation); which consisted of the A6 Great Glen Bypass, the A650 Bingley Relief Road, the A11 Roundham Heath to Attleborough and the A27 Polegate Bypass. In each case, it found that the agency’s forecasting to be ‘generally inaccurate’ particularly in assessing future traffic levels and economic forecasts did not reflect the actual impact on local businesses. CO2, air quality and noise impacts of the schemes were generally worse than expected while walking, cycling and public transport did not improve, even on local roads where traffic had decreased.

The report entitled ‘Investing in road building: The Highways Agency’s billion pound traffic gamble’ cast major doubts on the value for money of recent road building projects as in each case the economic benefits were generally lower than predicted. Additionally the CBT found that in two-thirds of the bypasses studied, congestion was simply moved congestion elsewhere.

Richard George, roads and climate campaigner for the Campaign for Better Transport, said: “These reports should set off alarm bells for anyone contemplating major road building and for taxpayers who will eventually have to pay for them. In difficult economic times, taxpayers must know that their money is being well spent. Instead, they’re being fobbed off with half-baked calculations which are little better than guesswork. The Government cannot justify spending over £1 billion a year on road projects which their own reports show aren’t solving people’s transport problems.”

He added: “It’s time for a moratorium on new road building until the Highways Agency can show us what we’ll get for our money. Instead, let’s spend money on smaller scale, excellent value for money projects which can really help to tackle transport problems now.”

The report can be accessed from the CBT website.

A transport pressure group has slammed the government scheme to widen the infamous M25 motorway.

The Highways Agency announced the winning bidder for a contract worth £6.2 billion on Wednesday. The contract, set to see an extensive program of widening along London’s famous orbital motorway yet, has been branded a huge ‘waste’ by transport charity, Campaign for Better Transport.

The M25 Design Build Finance and Operate (DBFO) contract for the future development, operation and maintenance of the M25 motorway was awarded to private sector consortium, Connect Plus. Under the contract the M25 will be widened to four lanes between Junctions 16 and 23 and between Junctions 27 and 30, and the Hatfield Tunnel on the A1(M) will be refurbished. Preparatory work on widening between Junctions 16 and 23 started on Thursday.

Transport Minister Andrew Adonis said: “The widening schemes, combined with the maintenance and operation of the M25 network for the next 30 years, will reduce congestion, improve journey time reliability and safety and bring benefits to road users.”
Up to 200,000 vehicles a day use the sections of the M25 that will be widened. The work is being phased to reduce the impact on road users and keep as many lanes open as possible. Work on both sections is due to be completed before the 2012 Olympics.

Responding to the news, Campaign for Better Transport’s roads and climate campaigner, Richard George, said: “No sooner has the contract been awarded than the costs are already rising. Last year this was a £5 billion project to widen four sections; now the Government will get two sections widened for £6.2 billion.

“To make matters worse, the Government’s own research shows that the no matter how much capacity you add, the M25 will just keep on filling up and congestion will just keep getting worse. This is a farcical waste of tax payers’ money at a time when infrastructure budgets are being wiped out because of the credit crunch.”

While environmentalists have raised concerns that widening the M25 will only encourage car dependency at a time when the Government says it intends to encourage motorists to use their cars less.

Motorway lighting on a carefully selected section of the M2 in Kent will be switched off between midnight and 5am in a move to reduce carbon emissions and light pollution, the Highways Agency has announced.

Lighting on the M2 between junctions 3 and 4 near Chatham will be switched off each night between midnight and 5am. This will start from 00:01hrs Thursday 7 May. The motorway junctions and their approaches will remain lit.

The site has an excellent safety record and a very low traffic flow between midnight and 5am, and has been chosen as the second site for the Highways Agency’s programme in the South East after careful assessment.

Jon Griffiths, Highways Agency Network Operations Director in the South East, said:

“We are looking for ways to reduce the carbon footprint of operating the motorway network and this is one step in that direction. This is the second of four sites where we are doing this in the South East, following a successful launch in the South West in March.

“We expect to achieve up to a 40 per cent saving in carbon emissions and energy use for each section of motorway where we do this, and local communities will benefit from reduced light pollution of the night sky.

“We have carefully chosen sites where the traffic flows are so low in the early hours that when taken together with the good safety record of the sites, there would be no case for installing new lighting if the decision was based on the overnight figures alone.”

Timing devices at the roadside will control when the lights switch off and on again. The Highways Agency’s Regional Control Centre for the South East can override the mechanism if needed.