§ 13. Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for the Environment what is the estimated cost of repairing the M6 in Staffordshire; how long this will take to complete; and if he will make a statement.
§ Dr. GilbertApproximately 26 miles of M6 in Staffordshire will need repair within the next five years, at a cost of about £10.5 million.
Repair of the five-mile stretch between junctions 13 and 14, known as Stafford bypass will be undertaken this year. The reconstruction work will start in the latter part of April or early in May and will, it is hoped, be completed in the autumn. The estimated cost is £2.5 million.
§ Mrs. ShortIs my hon. Friend aware that there is considerable concern among local authorities in the West Midlands that this amount of expensive repair work is having to be done well ahead of the estimated date for such work? Is not this an urgent indication that we need an integrated transport policy which would take a considerable amount of the road traffic off the motorway and transfer it to the railways and thus prevent heavy lorries from pounding away and breaking up the motorway, which in turn means that enormous amounts of money have to be spent on repairing it?
§ Dr. GilbertI fully appreciate my hon. Friend's sentiments. Whatever steps should be taken in an integrated transport policy will not succeed in transferring very much of the traffic now travelling on motorways to the railways.
§ Mrs. ShortWhy not?
§ Dr. GilbertThe reason why we have had to repair this stretch of the M6 relatively soon after the last repair was that there was a deformation in the wheel tracks of a certain stretch in 1972 which was causing considerable danger.