£20 million motorway improvement scheme announced

The road improvement schemes worth up to £20 million will create thousands of jobs and homes in the South West.

The improvements to the M4 and M5/A30 will unlock the development of more than 3,300 homes and create more than 6,000 jobs for people living in Swindon, Exeter and Weston-super-Mare.

The Transport Secretary also announced a £2.54 million scheme on the A1 which will boost economic growth in Darlington in the North East.

Highways England is investing more than £11 million in these four schemes from its Growth and Housing Fund, with private sector developer contributions making up the rest.

The £100 million fund is in addition to the Government’s £15 billion investment in roads between 2015 and 2020, and provides financial contributions towards the cost of road improvements that are needed for new developments which promise swift delivery of homes and jobs.

£5 million will deliver improvements to the intersection of the M4 Junction 15 and the A419 near Swindon to unlock one of the largest housing and commercial developments in the country. Construction of the scheme will start in 2018

£4.5 million will deliver the A30 / M5 J29 Tithebarn Link Road, which will release three housing and employment sites at the strategically important intersection of the A30 / A303 and the M5 to the east of Exeter. The scheme comprises a new cycle bridge over the M5 and a new link road connected to the M30. It will also reduce traffic on the A30 link to the M5 J29 and provide an alternative to the existing route crossing the M5 at junction 29. The scheme is supported by £4.6m in contributions from the developer and will open in March 2019

£750,000 funding will go to improve the northbound M5 at Junction 21, near Weston-super-Mare. This will help support the ‘Weston Villages’ develop 6,000 new houses and 4,000 new jobs to the west of the M5 at Junction 21. Developers are investing £450,000 and the scheme will be completed in 2018

£1.01 million will go to improve junction 58 of the A1(M) at Darlington, unlocking two development sites which could see the construction of 1,200 homes and create 1,500 new jobs. The work, which is due to complete in 2017, will include improvements to the A68 Rotary Way roundabout and the West Park Garden Village Link Road. The scheme will be delivered in March 2018 and is supported by £1.46 million contributions from the developer.