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‘Smart’ motorway reports expose costly failure
After much delay, National Highways has finally published the evaluation reports for 16 ‘smart’ motorways. As expected, they showed that almost all of the ‘smart’ motorways had been costly failures. Instead of delivering a predicted £10 billion of economic benefits, they delivered under £2bn, which is less than they cost to build. And that’s not counting the £900 million spent on retrofitting additional emergency laybys and upgrading technology. Post Opening Project Evaluation (POPE) studies are produced after a new road...
Lighting the touchpaper
Igniting Community Action: The Queensbury Tunnel Campaign Transport Action Network (TAN) was founded in 2019 to help local communities facing damaging road schemes or wanting better transport solutions. What happened...
2025 transport review
One step forward, two steps back What has gone well in 2025 Like any year, assessing whether there has been any progress is difficult when things are so complex. However, we’ve seen several significant milestones in 2025 which should bring lasting benefits: The Bus Services Act in England became law,...
Demand for transparency on Smart Motorways
As campaigners call for POPES to be freed on Bonfire Night Smart Motorways are widely seen to have been a failure. Deeply unpopular with road users and breakdown services, they have led to more live lane injuries and fatalities. As a result, in 2023, the further rollout of new schemes...
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Toxic concrete concerns
The government’s desire to be seen to be doing things at pace is already leading to poor and costly decisions. There is also a real risk that the public will be put in danger. Concerns have already been raised that the “low carbon pathfinder” status of National Highways’ £16 billion...
National Highways’ Toxic Run-Off
It has been widely reported that our rivers are polluted, with not a single river in England in good overall health. What isn’t so well known is that a major source of this pollution comes from our roads – oil spills, particulate matter, and microplastics from tyre and brake wear....
Highway robbery – abusing Designated Funds
TAN has discovered that National Highways is syphoning off money from a dedicated fund for environmental and safety improvements (called ‘Designated Funds’1) to use it as sweeteners or greenwashing for new roadbuilding schemes. National Highways is also raiding the “ringfenced” funding to pay for mitigation that should come out of...