§ Mr. Nicholas Wintertonasked the Secretary of State for Transport (1) what is the total mileage of motorways in England which have concrete safety barriers; and what is this figure as a percentage of the total mileage of motorway central safety barriers;
(2) whether he intends to increase the use of concrete safety barriers on the central reservations of motorways;
(3) what information he has concerning the comparative costs per 100 yd of concrete safety barriers for the central reservations of motorways and other types of safety barriers currently used.
§ Mr. Peter BottomleyThere are no concrete barriers on the central reserves of motorways in England. The use of concrete barriers on central reserves is currently restricted to roads with speed limits up to 50 mph. There are no plans at present to use them on higher speed roads. The average cost of installing 100 yd of double-sided steel safety fence of the type used commonly on the central reserves of motorways is about 213W £3,000. The comparative cost for concrete safety barriers is estimated to be between £7,500 and £8,000. None of these figures include the costs of traffic delays incurred when in 214W stallation is on an existing road. I shall write to my hon. Friend to give more detailed information about the restrictions currently applying to concrete barriers.