Will rollout of smart motorways screech to a halt?

Will rollout of smart motorways screech to a halt? With more schemes in pipeline despite MPs’ damning report, building of roads with no hard shoulder could be stopped in months

• No hard shoulder motorways could be halted in the New Year
• Grant Shapps mulling over idea when he responds to report from MPs 
• MPs have called for smart motorway rollout to be paused  

The  building of smart motorways with no hard shoulder could be halted in the New Year under plans being considered by ministers.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps is mulling over the move for when he officially responds to a damning report by MPs which called for their rollout to be paused.

It would mean no more stretches of ‘all lane running’ (ALR) motorway being built after existing parts already under construction are introduced.

ALR smart motorways are where the hard shoulder is permanently removed and turned into a fourth lane, meaning motorists can become marooned in live traffic if they break down.

Yesterday the Daily Mail revealed how an extra 84 miles of the deadly roads are to be opened despite the call for a pause by MPs on the Commons transport committee.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps (pictured) is mulling over the move for when he officially responds to a damning report by MPs which called for their rollout to be paused

The routes will have emergency refuges up to 1.5 miles apart, contrary to safety guidelines laid down by Mr Shapps that the distance should be no more than a mile.

Mr Shapps will leave it until next year to respond to the transport committee’s report so the latest data can be scrutinised before making a decision over the controversial roads.

But one option being considered is to end the building of any more ALR smart motorways once ‘in-flight’ projects have been completed.

There were 53 deaths on smart motorways in the four years to 2019 with at least 18 blamed to some degree on the roads. The Mail – which is campaigning for greater safety on such stretches – understands ministers do not believe there is a future for roads which people don’t feel safe travelling on and are looking ‘very seriously’ at setting an end date for any new schemes. Extra laybys could be installed on the almost 250 miles of ALR smart motorway which remain part of the network.

The routes will have emergency refuges up to 1.5 miles apart, contrary to safety guidelines laid down by Mr Shapps that the distance should be no more than a mile

However, the move would disappoint campaigners who want to see nothing short of the hard shoulder being reinstated in full. Surveys have found this is the most popular option for the majority of motorists.

Sally Jacobs, 83, whose 83-year-old husband Derek was killed on a smart motorway on the M1 in 2019, said: ‘I will be disgusted if they don’t reinstate the hard shoulder. What are they waiting for, a major incident where several people die?

‘It’s not manslaughter anymore, it’s murder, because they know what they’re doing. Nothing will satisfy us until the hard shoulder is restored… I don’t want anybody to suffer like I have.’

Road bosses face growing calls to install more emergency refuges on new and existing ALR schemes so the roads are in line with Mr Shapps’s safety advice, issued in March last year. Last week’s inquiry by the transport committee also said emergency laybys should be ‘retro-fitted’ on all schemes so they are a ‘maximum’ of one mile apart.

Jack Cousens, from the AA, said: ‘We echo the recommendation made by the select committee last week and urge National Highways and the Department [for Transport] to urgently install closer [emergency refuges] to all schemes, be they in construction or completed.’

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