M6 (Resurfacing) (Hansard, 2 August 1978)

§ 18. Mr. Rooker
asked the Secretary of State for Transport how many miles of the M6 motorway will be resurfaced in 1978 and 1979.

§ Mr. Horam
About 97 lane miles extending over 17 miles of motorway will be resurfaced in the current financial year and an estimated 110 lane miles are planned for next year.

§ Mr. Rooker
May I apologise to the hon. Member for Christchurch and Lymington (Mr. Adley) for mentioning him rather than the hon. Member for Faversham (Mr. Moate) during my point of order earlier?
May I ask my hon. Friend to say what will be the cost of resurfacing the M6? Will the resurfacing be carried out with a material which will lessen the noise—such materials are available—and as a result benefit my constituents who live alongside the M6? Will any of the money that is to be spent on this work be recovered from the contractors who caused the resurfacing to be necessary by building a road which is falling apart seven years after it was opened?

§ Mr. Horam
The total cost of work this year is about £8½, million. I cannot agree that the road is falling apart. Much of the M6 was built in the early 1960s and its design life is now at an end. The surface has to be replaced. That is in hand and will be done in several stages. I cannot make any comment on my hon. Friend's point about noise.

§ Mr. Andrew MacKay
Bearing in mind the substantial amount of repairs needed for this and other motorways in the Midlands, may I ask whether the Minister is satisfied that there was no negligence during the original construction? Can he give some guarantee—or at least offer some hope—to the taxpayers and to those who drive on the motorways that the fresh repairs will last for a longer period than the original construction and that the road will not have to be dug again, causing great inconvenience in a few years' time?

§ Mr. Horam
The hon. Gentleman is referring to the buried joints on the elevated sections of the M6. I believe that that was the point of my hon. Friend the 752 Member for Birmingham, Perry Barr (Mr. Rooker). That was not so much a question of negligence as a design mistake, which is now being rectified over a period of years. It will be done in due course and requires no further comment.
As regards the length of life of motorway surfaces, following our review of the practice in the early 1970s, surfaces are being built to a rather higher standard. They are thicker than they were before. I am sure that that will mean a longer life for such surfaces.

§ Mr. Raphael Tuck
Is not all the resurfacing due to the fact that we are importing 32-ton juggernauts from the EEC? Is there any truth in the horrifying rumour that the Minister intends to allow 42-ton vehicles to come into this country? They will reduce our roads to rubble.

§ Mr. Horam
The House has now had three bites at this cherry. Two of them were by my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Perry Barr.
I know that my hon. Friend the Member for Watford (Mr. Tuck) suffers from problems on the A405 and A41 in particular. There is absolutely no truth in The Guardian's story about the introduction of heavier lorries.