All change 30 January 2025
In July 2024, a new Government entered office with a very different set of priorities. What does it mean for a faltering roads programme?
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Highways England
We need to talk about Wisley 01 April 2024
National Highways are spending a third of a billion pounds rebuilding one of the most congested junctions on the M25. Is it money well spent?
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Not so Smart 17 April 2023
There have been rumours for months. Now the announcement has been made - “all new Smart Motorways scrapped”. What does this mean and who are the winners?
The ghost junction 22 March 2022
The only UK motorway that didn’t connect to ordinary roads finally got its own interchange in 2019. But it's not open, because it still doesn’t touch any ordinary roads.
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2020 end of year update 21 December 2020
We've reached the end of the strangest year anyone can remember. Time for a quick look at some news from the last few months.
The next five years 07 April 2020
A look inside the second Road Investment Strategy, which promises £27.4bn of investment and upgrades to trunk roads over the next five years.
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Closing the Clifton Bridge 19 February 2020
The A52 Clifton Bridge's major emergency repairs are bringing chaos to Nottingham. What's gone wrong - and how could it be a total surprise? Civil engineer Alex Romankiw explains.
The missing (M) 14 January 2020
Highways England's flagship new road was, to great fanfare, supposed to be a motorway - but it opened as the A14.
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A diamond on the rough 23 October 2019
Nobody likes a concrete road. Promises have been made time and again to get rid of them all - but perhaps there’s another solution.
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When is a motorway not a motorway? 15 October 2018
When it's an expressway, of course. Except that an expressway is, now, also a motorway.
The stack is back 21 May 2018
Just a few years ago Kent was going to be saved from Operation Stack. Now it's back with a vengeance.
Routes
Orange appeal 11 September 2017
An update on Highways England's new orange emergency lay-bys.
Orange is the new grey 19 July 2017
Why do Highways England think emergency lay-bys will work better painted orange?
Routes
How RIS1 changed everything 21 June 2017
Trunk roads in England are now being built and improved in five-year Road Investment Strategies. How do they work?
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Smart Motorways
Motorways used to be really simple. Now they have electronic signals, variable speed limits, emergency lay-bys, part-time hard shoulders... Just what is so smart about Smart Motorways?
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Guides
Emergency Diversion Routes
Those funny black and yellow symbols are everywhere - and they might just get you back on track one day.
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Guides
Driver Location Signs
If you're on the motorway (in England at least) you might have noticed some funny blue signs down the side of the road. What are they for?
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Guides
Major incidents
What happens when there's a big accident on a trunk route? Who picks up the pieces, and why does it take so long?
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Guides
What's new
Hello, here's my ridiculous side project
An introduction to what I write, and why I write it, and where my strange new road sign simulator fits in to all this.
London, in a new light
It was specially designed never to be noticed. And now it's disappearing, nobody has noticed its absence. It's London's own bespoke street light.
The Ringways Map is here
The wait is over! The full map of the Ringways, London’s unbuilt urban motorway network, is now online. Not even the system's planners had anything like this.
Have you seen...
New Medway Viaducts
Taken over the course of two years, from 2002 to 2003, these sixteen images chart the construction of two new bridges alongside the M2 Medway Viaduct.
