Rush hour roadworks to disappear?

Secretary of State for Transport, Philip Hammond, has announced plans to introduce lane rental schemes for roadworks.

Little is more frustrating for a driver than encountering roadworks in rush hour. Even more frustrating are roadworks that seem to be inactive. But that could be about to change.

Secretary of State for Transport, Philip Hammond, wants local authorities to introduce a ‘Lane Rental’ scheme for utility companies, which would charge them to dig up roads at busy times.

The logic is that by charging the utility companies a ‘Disruption Tax’ if they choose to dig up the road at the busiest times, they can be persuaded to move their roadworks to quieter times or, even better, dig up our roads through the night.

Philip Hammond wants local authorities to apply the same rules to themselves, and they are being urged to apply to the Department of Transport for approval to run a pilot scheme where the Lane Rental scheme would apply to one  urban and one non-metropolitan area in their district.

Which is a proper piece of joined-up thinking and one we hope will reduce roadwork frustrations for those unfortunate enough to be on the road during rush hour. And just in case you were wondering, councils would be compelled to use any money raised through a Lane Rental scheme to mitigate future road work disruption, perhaps through infrastructure work, research or measures to improve the management of works

Philip Hammond said:

Everyone knows how frustrating it can be when you are sat in a traffic jam, unable to get to work or drop off the children at school because someone is digging up the road.

This disruption is expensive as well as inconvenient, with one estimate valuing the loss to the economy from road works congestion at £4 billion a year. We simply cannot afford this.

That is why I am putting forward proposals which would incentivise utility companies and local authorities to carry out their works at times when they will cause the minimum disruption to the travelling public.

We’re up for anything that cuts unnecessary roadworks at busy times of the day, but we’d take it a step further. We’d expect all local authorities to monitor any roadworks – these days it’s easy with all the CCTV around – and fine utility companies for every minute they are not actually working.

Although roadworks are frustrating for motorists, nothing is more frustrating than endless miles of motorway roadworks with 50mph limits, average speed cameras and not a single road worker in view. Perhaps Philip Hammond could work that in to his proposals – at penal rates?

Please, Philip.