News: Value for money concerns over Rotherham's £300m smart motorway schemes
Multimillion pound smart motorways on the M1 through Rotherham have had a positive impact on journey times, congestion, the number of collisions and the environment but are not on track to deliver the value for money anticipated over the 60-year life of the project.
Considered a cheaper option to increase motorway capacity, all-lane running with no hard shoulders became operational in the region and open to traffic in 2017. The section in Rotherham and Sheffield was designated as Britain's first ever Air Quality "Speed Limit" based motorway and a trial of 60mph speed limits came into force.
The M1 junctions 28 to 31 project was delivered at a construction cost of £194.1m, about 7% over the forecast cost of £181.2m. The M1 junctions 32 to 35a project was delivered at a construction cost of £103.5m, about 3%m over the forecast cost of £100.3m.
The air quality trial completed in 2024 but further work has been carried out after smart motorways came under scrutiny.
In 2023 the government confirmed that plans for new smart motorways would be cancelled in recognition of the "lack of public confidence felt by drivers and cost pressures."
A National Emergency Area Retrofit (NEAR) programme was required, with a £390m investment plan which, along with technology like stopped vehicle detection, aimed to improve safety on the road network.
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A five year Post Opening Project Evaluation (POPE) of the South Yorkshire schemes by National Highways shows some benefits but the organisation added that traffic flows were lower than expected, due to the wider growth impacts resulting from the COVID-19 restrictions, which will have had an impact on the re-forecast benefits of these projects.
The report concluded that average journey times have generally reduced in peak periods and that journey time reliability has been shown to improve.
However, the report adds: "Without further intervention, journey time benefits are unlikely to be on track to be realised. This is likely to be due to lower than forecast levels of traffic due to the impact of COVID-19 restrictions, resulting in the additional lane being required less frequently than may have been expected. This means that the additional capacity provided by the smart motorway is not yet being fully optimised to realise the benefits to customer journeys. However, the capacity is available to support an increase in road users in the future."
Despite safety concerns, the report states that there is an observed reduction in the rate and number of collisions and improvement to the impact on casualties.
Outcomes were as expected for all of the environmental impacts assessed - noise effects were "broadly as expected and greenhouse gas impacts were assessed as "too early to say.""
Regarding value for money, the report said: "The evaluation indicated that in the first five years this investment is not on track to deliver the value for money anticipated over the 60-year life of the project. The M1 junctions 28 to 31 project is expected to deliver "low" value for money, while the M1 junctions 32 to 35a project is expected to deliver "medium" value for money."
The forecast value for money for both schemes were originally "high" with the main reason for the overall reduced level of benefits given as the lack of journey time savings. The five-year analysis has shown that both projects deliver journey time savings, although in both cases journey time improvements are less than originally forecast.
The improvement of journey time reliability was a main objective of this project with improvements notable between 28 and 31 in the afternoon peak period northbound and in both morning and afternoon periods in the southbound direction. Between 32 to 35a, there were shown to be improvements to journey time reliability with the most notable improvement occurring during morning peak period in the northbound direction, and during the afternoon period in the southbound direction.
The slowest 10% journeys are now generally quicker, with the slowest journeys in peak periods taking about five minutes less than before.
Edmund King, AA president, said; "Motorways which have been widened, the hard shoulder kept, and safety technology added have proved the most successful. We have been calling for this standard for so long and urge any government that looks to improve motorways to use this style as the blueprint."
National Highways website
Images: National Highways / Costain
Considered a cheaper option to increase motorway capacity, all-lane running with no hard shoulders became operational in the region and open to traffic in 2017. The section in Rotherham and Sheffield was designated as Britain's first ever Air Quality "Speed Limit" based motorway and a trial of 60mph speed limits came into force.
The M1 junctions 28 to 31 project was delivered at a construction cost of £194.1m, about 7% over the forecast cost of £181.2m. The M1 junctions 32 to 35a project was delivered at a construction cost of £103.5m, about 3%m over the forecast cost of £100.3m.
The air quality trial completed in 2024 but further work has been carried out after smart motorways came under scrutiny.
In 2023 the government confirmed that plans for new smart motorways would be cancelled in recognition of the "lack of public confidence felt by drivers and cost pressures."
A National Emergency Area Retrofit (NEAR) programme was required, with a £390m investment plan which, along with technology like stopped vehicle detection, aimed to improve safety on the road network.
Advertisement
A five year Post Opening Project Evaluation (POPE) of the South Yorkshire schemes by National Highways shows some benefits but the organisation added that traffic flows were lower than expected, due to the wider growth impacts resulting from the COVID-19 restrictions, which will have had an impact on the re-forecast benefits of these projects.
The report concluded that average journey times have generally reduced in peak periods and that journey time reliability has been shown to improve.
However, the report adds: "Without further intervention, journey time benefits are unlikely to be on track to be realised. This is likely to be due to lower than forecast levels of traffic due to the impact of COVID-19 restrictions, resulting in the additional lane being required less frequently than may have been expected. This means that the additional capacity provided by the smart motorway is not yet being fully optimised to realise the benefits to customer journeys. However, the capacity is available to support an increase in road users in the future."
Despite safety concerns, the report states that there is an observed reduction in the rate and number of collisions and improvement to the impact on casualties.
Outcomes were as expected for all of the environmental impacts assessed - noise effects were "broadly as expected and greenhouse gas impacts were assessed as "too early to say.""
Regarding value for money, the report said: "The evaluation indicated that in the first five years this investment is not on track to deliver the value for money anticipated over the 60-year life of the project. The M1 junctions 28 to 31 project is expected to deliver "low" value for money, while the M1 junctions 32 to 35a project is expected to deliver "medium" value for money."
The improvement of journey time reliability was a main objective of this project with improvements notable between 28 and 31 in the afternoon peak period northbound and in both morning and afternoon periods in the southbound direction. Between 32 to 35a, there were shown to be improvements to journey time reliability with the most notable improvement occurring during morning peak period in the northbound direction, and during the afternoon period in the southbound direction.
The slowest 10% journeys are now generally quicker, with the slowest journeys in peak periods taking about five minutes less than before.
Edmund King, AA president, said; "Motorways which have been widened, the hard shoulder kept, and safety technology added have proved the most successful. We have been calling for this standard for so long and urge any government that looks to improve motorways to use this style as the blueprint."
National Highways website
Images: National Highways / Costain
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