A14

(asked on 3rd September 2014) - View Source

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will publish the methodology behind the benefit-cost ratios calculated for each of the schemes funded in the £1.5 billion works commissioned to improve the A14.


Answered by
John Hayes Portrait
John Hayes
This question was answered on 8th September 2014

The Highways Agency published the benefit cost ratios of options for the A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon improvement scheme in September 2013 in the ‘Technical Review of Options’ report to support the public consultation.

Following the decision not to toll in December 2013, a re-evaluation was carried out, on the proposed scheme without tolling and to compare its performance with other feasible non-tolled options. The proposed non-tolled option resulted in a BCR of 2.3 (published in the Public Consultation report in April 2014).

Both the ‘Technical Review of Options’ and the ‘Public Consultation’ reports are available on the Highways Agency website

http://www.highways.gov.uk/roads/road-projects/a14-cambridge-to-huntingdon-improvement-scheme/

The methodology for the appraisal of Environmental Impacts is prescribed in Web-based Transport Analysis Guidance (WebTAG) and is dependent upon the scheme’s stage of development. WebTAG is the Department for Transport’s guidance on the transport appraisal process which supports the development of investment decisions and the assessment of potential benefits or disbenefits of a scheme. The most up to date WebTAG guidance has been used.

The appraisal of the environmental impacts of the proposed scheme has and continues to consider both the built and natural environments and people. The environmental impacts that are considered are noise, air quality, greenhouse gases, landscape, townscape, the historic environment, biodiversity and the water environment.

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