Asked by: Lord Brougham and Vaux (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how planning is progressing for the dualling of the A303 from Stonehenge westward; when they expect construction to commence; how long construction will take; and what is the estimated cost of those works.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
Highways England is in the options phase of developing a solution for this section of the A303. It is intended that a public consultation on options will be held early in 2017 with a preferred route announced in the summer of 2017. Subject to the completion of the statutory process, work is expected to start in the first Road Investment Period, before April 2020. The exact timing of the construction phase is yet to be finalised along with the estimated cost of the works.
Asked by: Lord Brougham and Vaux (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to their recently published road investment strategy, when the work on the A303 will start; and how long it will take.
Answered by Baroness Kramer - Liberal Democrat Lords Spokesperson (Treasury and Economy)
On 1st December, the Government published the first Road Investment Strategy, setting out how we will invest £15 billion in over 100 schemes across the road network. It included a long-term commitment to invest over £2 billion in the A303/A30/A358 corridor and proposed to start this process with three major improvements; dualling the A303 between Amesbury and Berwick Down and between Sparkford and Ilchester, and providing a dual carriageway link from the M5 at Taunton to the A303. The Highways Agency will now start to develop the proposals but each will be subject to differing timescales depending on detailed design and progress through planning processes. Our aim is for construction of these proposals to start towards the end of this Road Period which runs from 2015/16 to 2019/20.