The Regional Monitor

Sheffield, the city famous for its steel production is linked to the rest of England via the M1 and M18. Plans to tackle congestion and make roads safer around the city will cost around £14m. Sheffield City Council received funding for the project from the Department for Transport’s Local Transport Plan scheme.
Engineers began the lengthy and expensive task of widening one of England’s busiest stretches of road in January this year. The Highways Agency says that adding an extra lane to the M1 around Sheffield will ease journey times across the whole of Yorkshire.
The overhaul will take up to a year to finish. During this period drivers will be forced to limit their speed to 50mph and have been warned to expect delays. But the government insists the disruption will be worth the wait.
“Widening this section of motorway will support the major improvements that are under way on the M1, helping to ease congestion on this route, one of the busiest stretches of motorway in England,” said roads minister Stephen Ladyman. “The project will only use land within the existing motorway boundaries, enabling us to deliver the benefits rapidly with minimum disruption to drivers and local communities,” he added.
The project promises not only reduced journey times, but also new electronic signs to offer greater information to drivers. However, green campaigners are less sanguine about the impact of a wider M1. Environmentalists fear more lanes will mean more cars and more harmful emissions. They are calling for a public inquiry into the plans and do not want to see the UK’s North-South road link stretched to four lanes across the rest of the country.
The RAC are also concerned about the plans, but for different reasons. The breakdown service has warned the government against replacing the hard shoulder with a fourth lane of traffic on such a busy stretch of road.
The South Yorkshire city is getting used to having its roads stretched to maximise use. Over the spring holiday period drivers suffered delays as work got under way to add a second lane to St Mary’s Road in the city. Officials say that when the work is complete, locals can expect to find getting from A to B far easier. They argue that buses, bikes and pedestrians will all benefit from the changes. But critics point out that the development will take a year to complete and will create log jams in Sheffield for the rest of 2007.
Others chastise Sheffield City Council for failing to draw up adequate plans to convince the government to spend more on the city. Critics say the city could have received a greater cash injection from London if it had made better plans to improve traffic flow around the city. The Department for Transport did not grant Sheffield the additional £2m it was looking for, saying its congestion plans were only “fair.”
Of the £14m the city does currently have, £1.35m will be spent on attempting to reduce road accidents, £1.84m is earmarked for tackling congestion and public transport priority schemes, and £650,000 is set to go on improving the safety of roads around schools. But for the rest of 2007, locals can expect to spend more time twiddling their thumbs in traffic jams as they wait for the extensive city-wide roadworks to finish.