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The widening scheme for M11 Junctions 6 to 8 was not taken forward back in March 2008 when draft Orders for access from M11 and A120 to an enlarged Stansted Airport were published at the same time as the airport expansion planning application.
Reasons for this were that, firstly the scheme did not give good value for money as a widening scheme, secondly, in October 2007, the Secretary of State for Transport announced that future improvements in capacity of England's motorways would most likely take the form of Managed Motorways using the hard shoulder as a running lane when traffic flows demanded extra running space. Overhead gantries and emergency refuge areas would be used to control use of the hard shoulders and traffic speed, as well as providing safe stopping points in emergencies.
A programme of further studies was undertaken during 2008 for schemes that are needed before 2014. M11 was considered to be an improvement in years later than those in the programme.
In March 2008, The S of S also announced that parallel investigations were to be carried out into improvement in capacity on the M11 between London, Stansted Airport and Cambridge, in particular, the M11 between J6 and J8, and the West Anglia Main Line rail corridor.
Options looked at for J6 to J8 included the widening scheme that was considered after the 2007 public consultation, and included use of the hard shoulder, all with necessary improvements such as drainage and new technology. We have produced a report identifying the options along with their costs, benefits, and likely timescale which would be after 2021. The full report is too large to include on the web but a CD or e-mail copy can be obtained by contacting the scheme e-mail address. A condensed version can be found on the publications page.
The report shows that between 2021 and 2030, improved capacity on the M11 between Junctions 6 and 8 would be required to avoid unacceptable levels of congestion and poor journey time reliability. Options exist that could deliver improvement by 2021. Dynamic Hard Shoulder running (DHS) options would cost between £286M and £331M. Widening (D4M) options would cost among £1,085M and £1,136M.
The DHS options have Benefit Cost Ratios well in excess of 2.0 but D4M options show poor value for money with BCRs of less than 1.0.
All options would cause environmental impacts; however most would be slight and the differences between the various options would be small.
Whilst no insurmountable problems have been identified with the various options at this stage, a number of issues would require further investigation and development in later stages of any scheme development given the limited experience of DHS schemes on England's motorways.
We have released this report at the same time as the Department for Transport release of the written Ministerial announcement on the West Anglia Main Line, as well as recent announcements on revised airport usage predictions for Stansted and Heathrow.
In January 2009 Department for Transport (DfT) published UK Air Passenger Demand and CO2 Forecasts. We carried out a number of sensitivity tests comparing earlier and revised forecasts and examining the effects of changes to transport models. A short report can be found on the publications page.
