Road projects could be revisited ...including third Strait crossing

THE new North Wales and transport minister for the Welsh Government, Ken Skates, has suggested he might be more welcoming towards road building projects. which were previously shelved due to concerns over increased capacity.

Mr Skates voiced interest in North Wales projects that had been put on hold.

But before any decisions are made, Mr Skates said he wanted to listen to what people and experts had to say, insisting he was “determined to solve problems”.

The projects which could be looked at again are:

■ A third bridge over the Menai Strait.

■ The so called “Flintshire corridor” which would include a new 13km two-lane dual carriageway linking the A55-A5119 Northop junction (junction 33) with the A494 and A550 north of Deeside Parkway junction, via

Kelsterton interchange and the Flintshire Bridge.

Speaking to BBC Wales’ Sunday Supplement show Mr Skates said: “I’ve had very, very full discussion with the new First Minister about what he wants me to do.

The priority is to listen and take action based on the listening that’s going to take place in the forthcoming months, whether it’s on 20 miles an hour, road building or any other matter. And that applies to both aspects of the portfolio to the transport side and the North Wales role as well.”

“First of all, I am going to listen, I’m going to listen to people. I’m going to listen to the counsellors that represent communities, I’m going listen to experts and I’m determined to solve problems not to stop problems, but to solve them.”

“And we want to embrace new and emerging technology, we want to embrace the race to zero which applies to all sectors, including the construction sector. But in terms of major road building we cannot ignore the reality of public finances.”

“With the Tories having crashed the economy under Liz Truss we now face real difficulties in terms of public spending. I haven’t yet assessed the budget that’s available to me for road building schemes and for transport as a whole.”

When pushed on if the Welsh Government would be building roads again Mr Skates said: “We do need to deal with the criteria for new road building schemes, which states that you can’t build them if it leads to extra capacity. And that’s caused difficulty in terms of considering schemes and interpretation. So in answering that question of will you build the roads? Yes, absolutely. We will. We’re going to build them better. And we will build them with the available funding.”

He was then asked specifically about the previously shelved developments for the Flintshire corridor and another bridge over the Menai Strait.

“Absolutely, they are certainly on my desk for consideration,” he said. “And they’ve also been considered quite extensively by the North Wales Transport Commission. Obviously, there is popular support for both amongst people who want to improve air quality in the respective areas, but also address congestion.”

“But we can’t just consider the schemes that were designed many years ago, we have to ensure that they reflect the reality of the climate emergency that we face. And I want Wales to be at the forefront of design and implementation of new infrastructure schemes.”

“Places like the Bahamas have been testing carbon capturing road surfaces, other countries in Europe are really ploughing ahead in terms of construction across all infrastructure, that will be net zero. And I want to make sure we utilise new and emerging techniques and technologies and that we use them for road building, for train track construction, for building public buildings so that we can ensure are contributing to our fight against climate change rather than adding to the problem.”