Smart motorways, already on the hard shoulder, now look to be towed off to the scrapyard.

According to rumours, it seems the whole smart motorway programme has been pulled and contractors have been officially notified not to expect further work.

Reviewing the situation

Ministers paused the rollout of new schemes last year pending a review of safety data. This followed a recommendation by the Transport Select Committee, not to mention public reprimands by coroners investigating deaths on the motorways. Police chiefs and road safety exoerts added to the calls for a stop as public confidence in the safety withered away.

The i newspaper led the breaking news, followed by other media outlets. Senior industry sources involved in the programme have been told that it is to be scaled back significantly. Contractors have also been informed .

One contractor told the newspaper that they had been told future schemes would be abandoned. The contractor said: ‘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.’

Quoting government insiders, the i said an update on the future of smart motorways will be set out shortly.

It added that multiple sources in the Department for Transport said there was no immediate prospect of the programme being restarted. However, they also stated that no final decision had  yet been made.

Leading concerns

During last summer’s Tory leadership contest, Rishi Sunak vowed to ban new smart motorways. However, when he became Prime Minister he was less definite, instead continuing the pause whilst safety reports and data were compiled.

According to Government figures, 38 people were killed on smart motorways between 2014 and 2019, and more deaths have since been reported.

Roads minister Richard Holden was challenged on Sky News about another coroner’s verdict this week stating a smart motorway was responsible or the death of two pensioners. The lack of a hard shoulder left them vulnerable and led to their car being hit.

Mr Holden told Sky News: ‘That’s exactly the reason we’re pausing them, is to see overall what the impact is. We need to get that data.’

‘The key thing is the Government has accepted there are issues here, which is why we’ve paused the scheme.

‘We’re also putting £900million in to retro-fit the smart motorway network, tackling some of the issues such as those refuge areas – putting those in right across the entire smart motorway network at the moment.

‘That’s why, overall, we’re having that proper pause to look at what more can be done.’

Underlining failure

The RAC’s head of roads policy, Nicholas Lyes, said that if the news of the scrapping is true, it is “an admission that the Government no longer has faith in these types of roads”. He added that it is “a conclusion that most drivers came to a long time ago”.

“The next big question is: what happens to the hundreds of miles of motorway without a hard shoulder? It’s clear from RAC research that drivers want the hard shoulder back, so it may be the case that solid white lines have to be painted to all the inside lanes of these motorways.

‘While overall capacity would be dramatically reduced, we would still have the benefit of all the installed technology, such as variable speed limits which help to manage traffic flow more efficiently.’

Not the end of the story

A Government spokesperson stated: “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.”