Minister says M54-M6 link is ‘no-brainer’
A long-delayed Staffordshire road project connecting the M54 and M6 has been given new hope.
A project to ease traffic in Staffordshire by better linking the M54 and M6 has been described as a “no-brainer” by Lillian Green, the parliamentary under-secretary of state for future of roads.
First proposed more than a decade ago, and previously slated to have been completed in spring 2024, the link road would remedy the fact that there is no direct motorway link between the M54 and either the M6 north or the M6 Toll.
“The current direct link from the M54 to the M6/M6 Toll is the A460, which passes through the villages of Featherstone and Shareshill,” observed a 2017 government report following public consultation on the proposed link. “The A460 suffers significant congestion and high accident rates due to large traffic volumes. Journey times are almost doubled during peak hours, and there are also air quality issues in the villages and along the route.”
Green also said the link would reduce traffic on the nearby A5 and A449.
“It must be a real nuisance for people,” Green told BBC Shropshire. “The M54 and M6 link road will move 80 percent of that traffic off the local road... and onto this dedicated link. So, it's bringing people from places like Telford and Wolverhampton, who will be able to go straight up and down the M6 without impacting on local people.”
The project has previously been estimated to cost upward of £200 million. Green didn’t say whether that is still the case. She also gave no indication of which of three routes initially proposed would actually be chosen.
“We've got National Highways working really hard now to finalise the costs, to work out the schedule, to appoint a delivery partner,” she told BBC Shropshire. “All that will be confirmed as part of the roads investment strategy that we'll be publishing before the end of March next year.”
All this comes as Green has been reviewing in excess of 40 major road projects across the UK, to determine their viability.
“We're having to take an honest look at some of the promises made and work out, in conjunction with local authorities, which ones we can afford to deliver,” she said.
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Chris Cope is a fourth-generation journalist, originally from Texas. He has lived in the UK for roughly two decades and has been writing about motorcycles for most of that time. He has written for dozens of publications and websites in the UK, US, Canada, and Australia.
