FTA welcomes M25 Managed Motorways scheme

The UK’s Freight Transport Association (FTA) says the Highways Agency’s (HA) announcement that the hard shoulder on the M25 between the Kent and Surrey sections is to be converted to a traffic lane is “potentially good news”. The plans to add extra capacity to the notoriously busy 24km (15 miles) section between junction 5, near Sevenoaks and junction 7 where the M25 meets the M23 intersection, will be the first section of ‘Managed Motorway’ on the London Orbital motorway. The Managed Motorways scheme uses a range of innovative technologies to control traffic, with features that include variable mandatory speed limits and the opening of the hard shoulder to traffic at busy periods. The M25 introduction follows a successful pilot on the M42 in 2006, which saw accidents reduce by more than 50% over a three-year period.

According to the HA, work on the M25 Managed Motorway upgrade is due to start in 2013/14, subject to completion of statutory processes, and follows the successful completion of the widening of the motorway between junctions 16 - 23 and 27 - 30 last month. James Hookham, the FTA’s managing director for policy and communications, said, “The FTA feels that the proposal of what is essentially ‘creating an extra lane’ on the M25 is good news for this particularly busy stretch of motorway. Some may see it as the Highways Agency widening on the cheap, but we feel that this will give motorists, and most importantly our members, extra capacity and will help to keep the motorway moving.”

16 July 2012