{"id":894693,"date":"2026-03-27T05:13:54","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T10:13:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/27\/alexander-announces-slimmed-down-major-roads-programme\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T05:13:54","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T10:13:54","slug":"alexander-announces-slimmed-down-major-roads-programme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/27\/alexander-announces-slimmed-down-major-roads-programme\/","title":{"rendered":"Alexander announces slimmed-down major roads programme"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wrapper_sleeve\">\n<p><img width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.ca.emap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2023\/05\/National-Highways.jpg\"  decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"  alt=\"National-Highways.jpg\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Transport secretary Heidi Alexander has confirmed government cash for 16 major local road schemes worth about \u00a31bn after a review of the government\u2019s major highways programmes.<\/p>\n<p>In July last year, Alexander announced a review of 41 of projects inherited from the previous government\u2019s Major Road Network and Large Local Majors programme, saying they were \u201cneither affordable nor got off the ground\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Today (26 March), she said that 16 projects would be kept in the programme, including the Norwich Western Link, M5 junction 28 improvements and phase three of the A43 Northampton dualling scheme.<\/p>\n<p>Alexander said: \u201cEach of these schemes has the potential to deliver benefits such as unlocking housing and economic growth and reducing congestion at key locations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Funding for each will be conditional on local authorities satisfying the department that they have an acceptable business case.<\/p>\n<p>Many of the other schemes that formed part of the review are being withdrawn \u201con the grounds that the local authority can no longer afford its funding contribution\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n<p>Today\u2019s announcement came within the government\u2019s Roads Investment Strategy (RIS) 3, covering the period between 2026 and 2031.<\/p>\n<p>The strategy\u2019s previous iteration, RIS2, listed 32 potential major projects to be developed for possible future delivery, which increased during the period.<\/p>\n<p>But today\u2019s RIS3 said that \u201cwas an overly ambitious list, and was ultimately unaffordable, and the number of potential schemes has been reduced to a more manageable number\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The department is working with councils ahead of a summer announcement of further steps on the schemes that missed out, Alexander said.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><strong>Approved schemes<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A140-A1120 Earl Stonham<\/li>\n<li>A10 Corridor Scheme, Broxbourne<\/li>\n<li>Norwich Western Link<\/li>\n<li>Vauxhall Way Improvements (Phase 1)<\/li>\n<li>Shalesmoor Gateway<\/li>\n<li>A650 Tong Street<\/li>\n<li>A426\/A4071 Avon Mill\/Hunters Lane Improvements<\/li>\n<li>A43 Northampton \u2013 Kettering Phase 3<\/li>\n<li>A379 Bridge Road<\/li>\n<li>M5 J28<\/li>\n<li>Northam Rail Bridge<\/li>\n<li>A229 Blue Bell Hill Improvements<\/li>\n<li>A259 South Coast Road Corridor<\/li>\n<li>A326 Waterside Improvements<\/li>\n<li>Wigan East West<\/li>\n<li>Sunderland Strategic Transport Corridor Phase 4<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Not confirmed in the 26 March announcement<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A4174 MOD Roundabout Improvements<\/li>\n<li>A454 between Wolverhampton and East Park Gateway<\/li>\n<li>A509 Isham Bypass<\/li>\n<li>Blyth Relief Road<\/li>\n<li>Ely to Cambridge A10 Improvement (Dualling and Junction Improvements)<\/li>\n<li>Sheffield Innovation Corridor Road<\/li>\n<li>A31 Farnham Corridor<\/li>\n<li>A1079 Improvement Scheme, Wilberfoss<\/li>\n<li>A1139 University Access<\/li>\n<li>A1237 YORR dualling Phase 2 \u2013 Wetherby Road to A19<\/li>\n<li>A127 Corridor for Growth \u2013 Route Improvements<\/li>\n<li>A17 Pullover Junction<\/li>\n<li>City Centre Road, Portsmouth<\/li>\n<li>M5 Junction 9 (OBC Development Costs only)<\/li>\n<li>West Quay Road Realignment, Southampton<\/li>\n<li>A614\/A6097 Corridor Scheme<\/li>\n<li>Warrington Western Link Road<\/li>\n<li>Shrewsbury North Western Relief Road<\/li>\n<li>A500 Dualling<\/li>\n<li>Kendal Northern Access Route<\/li>\n<li>A350 Melksham Bypass<\/li>\n<li>Chesterfield Staveley Regeneration Route<\/li>\n<li>Aylesbury Eastern Link<\/li>\n<li>Shipley Eastern Congestion Relief Road<\/li>\n<li>A13\/A126 East Facing Slip Roads<\/li>\n<li>Rocket Junction, Liverpool<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/civils\/alexander-announces-slimmed-down-major-roads-programme-26-03-2026\/\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><br \/>\n Colin Marrs<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Transport secretary Heidi Alexander has confirmed government cash for 16 major local road schemes worth about \u00a31bn after a review of the government\u2019s major highways programmes. In July last year, Alexander announced a review of 41 of projects inherited from the previous government\u2019s Major Road Network and Large Local Majors programme, saying they were \u201cneither<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":894694,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1438,551],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-894693","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-alexander","8":"category-announces"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=894693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894693\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/894694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=894693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=894693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=894693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}