Strategic approach to roads needed says ACE

Highways Agency's new business plan criticised by Association for Consultancy and Engineering (ACE) as 'a short-term fix'.

Highways Agency's new business plan, just published, has been criticised by the Association for Consultancy and Engineering (ACE) as 'a short-term fix' which will could have potentially serious negative effects on the consultancy and contracting sectors.

The ACE spoke out after the government signaled its intention to change its roads policy from strategic investment to one of congestion management.

The Secretary of State for Transport, Ruth Kelly, announced at the beginning of March 2008, that the government would tackle road congestion by managing trunk road journeys, focusing on such measures as hard shoulder running, active traffic management (ATM) and user charging.

Steve Ashton, chairman of ACE's Road Sector Interest Group, said: "This a major shift in the government's roads policy".

"While we welcome the initiative to capitalize on the success of the M42 ATM pilot we are extremely concerned that this will only provide a short-term fix and divert attention away from the major issues facing the strategic road network in England".

"A long-term holistic approach to achieve an efficient and effective network is vital for the economic prosperity of the UK".

The shift in government roads policy is strongly reflected in the Highways Agency 2008/09 Business Plan, which was published last week".

"The consultancy and engineering sector is particularly concerned with this new approach to road investment which is likely to result in many major road projects being delayed, shelved or significantly scaled down," Ashton added".

"Not only will this have an adverse long -term effect on the efficiency of the strategic road network and the A gency's customers, it will also impact on consultants and the contracting sector," he said.

ACE's policy and operations director, Scot Parkhurst, commented: "The Department of Transport's 2006 Eddington Transport Study highlighted the need for sustained investment to improve the performance of the existing transport network".

"ACE's view is that the government's current short-term approach will not deliver the long term improvements needed across the UK's transport network".

"We believe that government must re-establish a strategic approach to roads policy to ensure that the network is planned and maintained for the long term.".

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