Five-year plan to tackle congestion

Aerial shot of the M62 junction with the M606 Chain Bar Interchange near Bradford and Leeds. Picture by Tony Johnson

The scheme, which transport bosses claim will see more than £1.3 billion of improvements to roads across Yorkshire and the Humber, will be administered by Highways England, which took over responsibility for England’s motorways and major A roads earlier this year,

Projects due to start in the region by 2020 include a new smart motorway between junctions 20 and 25 of the M62 which will link up with existing schemes to create the biggest single stretch of smart motorway in the country, covering nearly 60 miles between Yorkshire and the North West. An extra lane and variable speed limits will be used to keep traffic moving.

Other projects planned for the region include work to tackle congestion at the M62/M606 interchange on the route between Leeds and Bradford, improvements to junctions 1 to 7 of the M621, upgrades to junction 45 of the M1 to enhance access to the Aire Valley development, and improvements to the A63 on a key route to Hull.

The work is part of the government’s ‘Road Investment Strategy’, a £15 billion plan which was announced last year to triple levels of spending on England’s roads by the end of the decade, increasing their capacity and condition.

Highway’s England’s Director of Major Projects in the North, Jeremy Bloom, and Regional Director for Yorkshire and the Humber, Vanessa Gilbert, will launch the scheme at a regional launch event at the Horizon centre in Leeds today.