§ Lord Rennellasked Her Majesty's Government:
When they will announce an agreement for the construction of the Birmingham Northern Relief Road.
24WA
§ The Minister of State, Department of Transport (Lord Brabazon of Tara)My right honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State has today announced that we have been able to complete with Midland Expressway Ltd. the concession agreement for the Birmingham Northern Relief Road. This will be the first privately financed toll motorway in the United Kingdom and the first road authorised under the provisions of the New Road and Street Works Act 1991. This project has been strongly backed by MEL's parent companies, Trafalgar House and Iritecna of Italy.
The new road, which should be opened in the late 1990s, will provide welcome relief to the M.6 and to local traffic in the A.5/A.38 corridor. The agreement provides for a concession of 53 years and the concessionaire envisages that, on opening, tolls will be about £1.50 for cars and £3.00 for lorries at 1990 prices. The cost of engineering the BNRR will be some £270 million, including substantial measures for the mitigation of environmental impact.
MEL's latest design reflects a significant number of changes to the scheme which were accepted as a basis for public consultation in the Memorandum of Agreement signed on 12th August 1991. This revised scheme will, we hope, address most of the points raised in the public consultation. Towards the end of this year we hope to bring forward orders to implement the scheme.