Highways Agency

HIGHLIGHTS

Improving Safety

A range of major and minor road improvement schemes were completed during the year. These will deliver significant accident savings. Major new schemes that will also reduce congestion and improve journey reliability included the final section of the A12 Hackney to M11 Link Road. This has relieved the residential streets of Wanstead, Woodford and Leytonstone of through traffic and it is estimated the road will prevent 100 accidents a year on local roads. The A30 Honiton to Exeter Improvement is expected to save around 100 lives over the next 30 years. But smaller scale projects also have an important role to play in cutting accidents. Our Toolkit of innovative techniques was enhanced by the successful trial of wet night visibility road markings that are easier to see than conventional markings when the sun is low and at night when roads are wet.  

Making Better Use of Roads

Tackling congestion by making more effective use of existing roads requires innovative solutions. In a trial of the concept, the Agency opened a bus lane on the busy stretch of the M4 motorway linking Heathrow and West London. Dedicated exclusively to coaches, buses and taxis facing congestion heading into London, the scheme was initially controversial, but independent evaluation of the benefits has revealed time savings for all vehicles at peak hours with more savings and improved reliability for bus and coach journeys.  

Protecting the Environment

The Agency's new environmental strategy, set out in `Towards a Balance with Nature', is already helping to deliver improved protection for land, trees, wildlife and rivers alongside England's motorways and all purpose trunk roads. A dramatic example of the strategy in action is the scheme to translocate material from a 400-year old woodland affected by the M2 motorway widening scheme in Kent. Over 10,000 tonnes of ancient woodland soil and more than100 ancient hazel trees have been carefully moved and 60,000 new trees planted.  

Using Technology

The Agency continues to invest in new technological solutions to tackle congestion and provide improved services to road users. The development of our TRACS vehicle capable of undertaking speedier road condition surveys will lessen delays to road users when essential surveys of motorways and all purpose trunk roads are carried out. Better information will be available to road users as the Agency installs new Variable Message Signs, the prototype of which was unveiled last year. The Agency's leading role in evaluating and reprogramming existing traffic and tunnel control systems, the CCTV network, and all the supporting IT systems ensured that safety standards were not compromised as systems switched to the year 2000.  

Pupils being escorted to Highfield Primary School in Leeds.

The M4 bus lane has successfully reduced journey times during peak periods since it opened in June 1999.

An ancient orchard was preserved during widening of the A2/M2.

TRACS is a new high-speed survey vehicle able to identify cracks in road surfaces more effectively.