§ Mr. Greg Knightasked the Secretary of State for Transport if he will make a statement on his policy on the current phasing of motorway repair work.
§ Mr. Peter BottomleyMost motorway major repairs are carried out in the Spring and Summer months when conditions are favourable to the handling of bituminous materials. The longer daylight hours also permit shorter contract times, thus reducing the overall delays to motorway users.
In programming the works, we require them wherever possible to be spaced out over the system in order to reduce congestion. We also normally restrict working lengths to about 2½ miles at major repair sites and about 1¼ miles at smaller scale sites.
Useful reductions in contract times have been obtained by the use of lane rental contracts which give contractors an incentive to finish schemes early.