§ Mr. Russellasked the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation what results have emerged from the study of the report made by the Joint Parliamentary Secretary on his visit to Brussels in the autumn of 1957 to inspect overhead roads.
§ Mr. WatkinsonI have given detailed consideration to my hon. Friend's report on his visit to Brussels, as to other reports which I receive of developments in foreign road building. There are always useful lessons to be learnt. Because traffic demands in this country are more exacting, we propose to design our overhead roads to carry four lanes of traffic rather than the three in the Brussels overhead road.
Overhead lengths of roads are proposed for early construction at two sites in or near London: westwards from the Chiswick Flyover, where a 1½ mile viaduct is proposed to carry the South-West Radial over the Great West Road; and at Hammersmith, where the London County Council has put forward a scheme for a 1,814 ft. flyover. A scheme to put about 3 miles of the Preston-Birmingham Motorway over the railway in Smethwick and Oldbury is also being actively considered. I am very willing to consider the overhead arrangement wherever it seems the best answer to the difficulty of giving more road space in a town.