HL Deb 16 September 2003 vol 652 cc172-4WA
Lord Jopling

asked Her Majesty's Government:

How many weeks during the past five years parts of the M1 motorway had carriageways or hard shoulders coned off between junctions 23A and 25; and whether they will commission experts and advisors to instruct the local engineers and administrators on how to make structural changes to the carriageway in conjunction with each other, rather than separately. [HL4361]

Lord Davies of Oldham

I have asked the acting Chief Executive of the Highways Agency, Mr Stephen Hickey, to write to the noble Lord.

Letter from the acting Chief Executive of the Highways Agency, Mr Stephen Hickey, to Lord Jopling, dated 16 September 2003.

I have been asked by the Lord Davies of Oldham to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the number of weeks over the last five years that the M1 motorway has been coned off between junctions 23A and 25.

The information requested over five years will take some time to collect but this work has been put in hand. I will write to you again as soon as this is available.

There has recently been a considerable programme of works on this section of M1 between junctions 23A and 25. The pressures on this length of motorway are considerable; over 100,000 vehicles per day use it. As a result, roadworks are phased to limit the length of motorway restricted at any one time. Normal policy is that roadworks should not exceed a maximum length of 4 km and be a minimum distance between separate works of 10 km.

The Highways Agency already uses consultant engineers for designing and managing maintenance works. The contracts include a requirement to minimise roadworks on a particular length of road. By careful planning the agency aims to ensure the maximum amount of work is undertaken during any one contract and the disruption is kept to a minimum. On this section of MI most work is carried out overnight with three lanes remaining open during the daytime and, wherever possible, all work is suspended at peak holiday times. All contractors employed by the agency are required to complete roadworks as quickly as possible and are offered incentives in their contracts to do so.

As explained, I will write to you again as soon as we have collected the information you have requested.