Highways Agency - Safe roads, Reliable journeys, Informed travellers

Quieter roads

Key outcome

Reductions in traffic noise benefiting 3 million people living within 600m of trunk roads.

Our response

The strategic road network helps to support a healthy economy by providing the backbone for effective distribution of goods and services, and easy movement of people. But it is not without its disadvantages. People living close to major roads sometimes experience the effects of increased noise, whilst expansion of the road network inevitably disturbs the local environment. A balance has to be struck which satisfies both our economic and our environmental needs, and indeed much can be done to minimise any negative impact on the environment.

We know that many of our customers are concerned about noisy roads. We have put in place a Quieter Roads programme that will provide, by 2010, lower noise surfaces on around 60% of the network, including resurfacing of all the concrete trunk roads. Not all of these roads can be resurfaced at once. We are currently drawing up this programme which will assign priority to the noisiest roads which cause the greatest nuisance, but will also take account of other factors such as the whole life costs of the road. This programme will start in 2001/02.

In addition, we will continue a programme of other noise reduction measures including noise fencing and similar provisions - at other sites where people living nearby are disadvantaged because the road is not subject to the latest noise mitigation standards. Again, not all can be improved at once. A programme is being developed which will address the noisiest sites in priority order over the ten year period.

Further information

To obtain further information use the links below.

Map - Location of Concrete Roads (760KB PDF)