§ Mr. Greg Knightasked the Secretary of State for Transport by what date he expects the maintenance work currently in progress at and near junction 10 of the M1 motorway to be completed.
§ Mr. Peter BottomleyThe contractor hopes to complete the work by mid-October.
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§ Mr. Greg Knightasked the Secretary of State for Transport if he will consider restricting heavy commercial vehicles to the nearside lane only when, due to maintenance work, motorways are reduced to two-lane traffic.
§ Mr. Peter BottomleyThis would not be advisable. It would lead to one lane being heavily overused and the other operating at under capacity.
All heavy goods vehicles would necessarily have to run at the speed of the slowest vehicle. This could lead to frustration on the part of their drivers, and in turn lead to risk taking and excessive speeds when they reached the end of the works. We consider it is safer to have two lanes running more or less equally, rather than one running much faster than the other.
§ Mr. Greg Knightasked the Secretary of State for Transport what steps he has taken to minimise disruption to holiday traffic on motorways due to maintenance and repair work being carried out during this summer.
§ Mr. Peter BottomleyAll lane closures are carefully planned to keep delay and inconvenience to a minimum. The Department's agents work to national guidelines in respect of layout and spacing between works.
We have substantially increased the number of contracts let on a "lane rental" basis whereby contractors can earn bonuses for early completion. This has proved successful in reducing the time of occupation for works to be carried out.
In areas known to be heavily trafficked throughout the summer holiday period, such as the south-west, only essential works are carried out at this time. Wherever practicable works are lifted from all major holiday routes at peak periods such as bank holidays.