Axe hangs over Stonehenge tunnel and big roads projects

MOTORISTS could miss out on crucial new traffic-cutting projects as the Government looks set to cancel and delay schemes to save money.

The £2.4billion Stonehenge tunnel and £9billion Lower Thames Crossing between Kent and Essex could both be affected.

Dame Bernadette Kelly, the Department for Transport’s top civil servant, told MPS in parliament yesterday that there was “little financial headroom” for large roads projects until 2030, due to inflationary pressures and other funding commitments.

The permanent secretary was fielding questions from the transport select committee. Investment plans for the country’s strategic roads cover five-year periods, with the current programme, RIS 2, set to end in 2025.

The next, RIS 3, is in planning stages but Dame Bernadette indicated that several of its 32 schemes, which are aimed at easing congestion and improving access, may not go ahead.

“There are obviously schemes in the RIS 3 pipeline but it is true that the headroom for new projects in RIS 3 will be very limited,” she said.

These include upgrading of the A2 Dover access road, improvements to motorways on the east side of the Severn Crossing, and works to cut congestion on the A5 and the M69 between Hinckley and Tamworth. The A303 tunnel under Stonehenge has been hit by delays and cost overruns.