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Highways: Highways Agency will retain control over three major routes
The Highways Agency will retain control of three roads after the Department for Transport agreed to remove them from the Government’s de-trunking programme.
Set out in 1998, the de-trunking programme involved the transfer of 3,200km of non-core routes from HA control to local highway authority control. More than 85% of the programme has been completed since April 2001.
However, the HA decided this week that the M32 (Bristol to M4 junction 19), A36/A46 and the M65 (junctions 8-10) should remain under HA control because the strategic and/or operational importance of the routes had changed since the programme was established.
The A36/A46 – from M4 near Bristol to M27 near Southampton – has been removed because its strategic importance has been strengthened by the Eddington report, which emphasised the importance of ensuring good access to ports and international gateways. The M65 junctions 8 to 10 will remain under HA control because the ‘regional significance’ of Burnley has increased since 1998. Junction 10 delivers traffic to the edge of Burnley town centre. The M32 will not be detrunked because its operational significance has increase over the past nine years. The HA’s Traffic Officer Service now patrols the road, and enhanced traffic management equipment, including CCTV and variable-message signs, has been installed.
