‘Pause English roads programme’ says Goodwin – transportxtra.com

Roads
14 February 2022
Phil Goodwin: All road schemes need to be re-appraised
Many weak, incorrect or outdated assumptions in the appraisals that were carried out of currently programmed road schemes in England mean that  the Government should pause the controversial and expensive programme, says Professor  Phil Goodwin. This would provide the chance to reappraise the schemes properly, testing what contribution they make to carbon targets, their robustness to future climate conditions, and their correspondence with reasonable expectations on travel choices and needs, Goodwin argues in his latest LTT column. 
Goodwin criticises the Government’s paper on ‘Planning Ahead for the Strategic Road Network’ issued at the beginning of December, which suggested “any enhancement schemes that had funding approved in an earlier RIS [Road Investment Strategy], whose development has shown that they remain deliverable and value for money, and where construction has not concluded by 31 March 2025 will continue to be funded in RIS3 without additional assessment in the RIS-setting process”.