HL Deb 31 March 2003 vol 646 cc110-2WA
Lord Berkeley

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What is the cost of the proposed new junction layout for Junction 19 on the MI motorway; what is the basis for demonstrating value for money for this scheme; how many minutes delay per annum they estimate the new layout will save; and what are the values of money per minute or delay saved used to assess the benefits, separately for (a) cars and (b) heavy goods vehicles. [HL2235]

Lord Macdonald of Tradeston

I have asked the Chief Executive of the Highways Agency, Tim Matthews, to write to the noble Lord.

Letter from the Chief Executive of the Highways Agency, Tim Matthews, dated 31 March 2003.

The Minister of State, Lord Macdonald of Tradeston, has asked me to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the cost and value for money of the proposed new junction at Junction 19 on the MI Motorway.

The current estimated cost for this scheme is £100 million, including VAT.

Value for money was assessed using the Department for Transport's standard cost benefit analysis tool TUBA (Transport Users Benefit Appraisal) which includes calculation of user benefits and public and private sector transport provider impacts. The economic appraisal shows that the proposed scheme would provide significant journey time benefits to road users and reduced operating costs for both private and heavy goods vehicles.

The time-savings in vehicle hours for the 3 simulation years that were modelled in the appraisal are:

Year 2006 99,762 vehicle hours
Year 2011 322,392 vehicle hours
Year 2021 1,035,972 vehicle hours.

I attach a schedule showing the calculated annualised time savings in vehicle hours and value of time calculations for cars and heavy goods vehicles. You will appreciate that scheme development is at an early stage and these are preliminary figures which are subject to change.

I hope this is helpful. If you would like any further information, John Dutson, the Agency's Project Manager for the M1 Junction 19 scheme, would be pleased to help. He can be contacted at our offices at Broadway, Broad Street, Birmingham B15 1BL, or by telephone on 0121 678 8361.