Are smart motorways being scrapped? Rishi Sunak could ban ‘unsafe’ roads under new plans

Contractors ‘not expecting any new smart motorways’ as ministers considering stopping construction of controversial all-lane running routes
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The future of the UK’s smart motorway network is in doubt following reports that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is considering scrapping the controversial roads.

Work on new sections of smart motorways is currently suspended but industry and government sources have claimed the entire £3 billion project could be abandoned, according to new reports.

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There have been repeated calls for the controversial roads to be scrapped amid safety fears and the government suspended all new construction in January 2022 to allow more evidence to be gathered. However, according to inews, construction firms have been told that planned future sections will not go ahead and government sources said there was no immediate prospect of work restarting.

Any ban would see new all-lane running projects, including on stretches of the M25 around London and the M60 near Manchester, abandoned. It is not clear what such a move could mean for the 400 miles of existing smart motorways.

Sunak pledged to scrap the “unsafe” roads during his leadership campaign last year. He said at the time: “Smart motorways are unpopular because they are unsafe. We need to listen to drivers, be on their side and stop with the pursuit of policies that go against common sense.” It is thought that he will have the final say on their future following talks between officials from Number 10 and the Department for Transport.

What are smart motorways?

Smart motorways remove the hard shoulder in favour of an additional live traffic lane.

Cameras, radar and overhead signs are intended to detect any vehicles stopped in a live lane and close the lanes but in February almost the entire system failed, leaving drivers as “sitting ducks” for up to two hours.

Read more in our explainer.

Previously, the Office for Rail and Road revealed that National Highways was missing safety targets for stopped vehicle detection and response times, prompting renewed calls for the network to be scrapped and hard shoulders reinstated.

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Department for Transport sources said that no final decision had been made on whether to scrap smart motorways and safety data was still being gathered but one construction industry source told inews: “We’re no longer expecting any new smart motorways. Financial pressure on the government, alongside the unpopularity of the scheme, makes it seem untenable going forward”.

A government spokesperson said: “Safety on our roads remains an absolute priority and we want all drivers to feel safe and confident while driving. We have paused the rollout of smart motorways that are yet to begin construction and we will update on next steps in due course.

“During the pause, we have committed £900m for safety improvements across the network, including building more emergency areas.”

Avoidable deaths

The latest reports come after a coroner ruled that a fatal crash on a smart motorway section of the M1 would not have occurred had there been a hard shoulder. In her conclusion on the deaths of Derek Jacobs and Charles Scripps in 2019, assistant coroner Susan Evans told Chesterfield Coroner’s Court: “Smart motorways are hugely controversial because of the lack of any hard shoulder for motorists to use in times of need such as occurred here.

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“It is immediately apparent that, had there been a hard shoulder, this incident would not have occurred because Mr Jacobs would have been able to pull off the live lane entirely.”

The smart motorway lane management sytsem has suffered two major failures since October (Photo: Adobe Stock)The smart motorway lane management sytsem has suffered two major failures since October (Photo: Adobe Stock)
The smart motorway lane management sytsem has suffered two major failures since October (Photo: Adobe Stock)

Prior to February’s outage, a failure of the Dynac lane management system in October meant operators could not activate lane closure warnings for seven hours.

AA president Edmund King said it was clear the public had lost confidence in smart motorways and urged Sunak to abandon the project. In a letter to the Prime Minister he said: “The AA is imploring you to make a positive decision for road safety to halt any further roll-out of smart motorways and to urgently reinstate the hard shoulder on current sections. This would be a popular decision for the vast majority of drivers and we believe will save lives.”

The RAC’s head of roads policy Nicholas Lyes said if the government did abandon any new smart motorway building it would leave questions around the future of existing roads without hard shoulders.

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He added: “If ministers are giving serious consideration to completely scrapping new all-lane-running smart motorways, then this is an admission that the government no longer has faith in these types of roads, a conclusion that most drivers came to a long time ago.”

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