Highways across the Liverpool city region are to receive a £233m cash injection that will be used to reduce congestion, support public transport and improve footpaths and cycleways. Tony McDonough reports
Highways across Liverpool city region will see improvements to reduce congestion, support public transport and improve footpaths and cycleways in a £233m cash injection.
This Friday (March 4) the Combined Authority (CA) will be asked to approve the release of £232.96m from the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement (CRSTS) for a highways maintenance and non-maintenance package.
Liverpool alone will receive £50.55m to deliver local schemes. Under the allocation, Wirral will receive £37.77m, Sefton £41.11m, Knowsley £29.19m, St Helens £34.29m and Halton £24.37m. Transport authority Merseytravel will also receive £15.68m.
Focusing on key corridors, the proposed package represents a co-ordinated series of measures all designed to support public transport services, relieve congestion, and improve air quality for local communities.
The measures include carriageway resurfacing to improve the condition of the roads, drainage works to help prevent flooding, new streetlights. Bus users, cyclists and pedestrians would also benefit as plans include upgrades to bus shelters, improved footways and cycleways, plus new pedestrian crossing schemes.
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Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram said: “By investing in electric charging points and improved, future-proof infrastructure on the roads and transport network, we can ensure that our economy continues to accelerate forward as we rebuild from the pandemic.
“Ultimately, my vision is to create a modern, London-style public transport network. Not only will it make a huge difference to the lives of our residents, making their journeys cheaper, faster, and more reliable, but it would provide people with a genuinely viable alternative to their car.
“By choosing to travel on the bus or train, or even walking or cycling, we can significantly reduce traffic congestion on our roads – which will be vital for our region to hit our goal of being net zero carbon by 2040 at the latest.”
Subject to approval, Liverpool City Council will be delivering the works with more information about the schemes to be published at a later date. Cllr Dan Barrington, Cabinet Member for Environment and Climate Change, added: “This funding will be a great boost to our annual maintenance programme.
“We’ve identified a wide package of works for the coming 12 months be it resurfacing, traffic signal upgrades, replacement of kerbs and paths, drainage and lighting, as well as introducing 20mph zones at certain parts of the city, and work will begin very shortly on all of these elements.”
The Combined Authority was awarded an indicative allocation of £710m to fund transformational transport projects through the CRSTS in November 2021. The wide range of schemes included in the highways package were identified with the six local authorities.