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More money for roads but how will it be spent?

Philip Hammond is expected to announce an additional £5bn economic stimulus package in his Autumn Statement on Wednesday, including investment in digital and physical infrastructure and research and development. According to the Sunday Times, the measures are designed to show the UK is 'match fit' for Brexit over the next two and a half years.

The stimulus package is expected to include £1.3bn for local roads schemes, alongside a positive response to the National Infrastructure Commission's report last week, which called for £27m of funding to further develop the Oxford-Cambridge Expressway. The NIC's report found huge growth potential in the Oxford-Cambridge corridor held back by a lack of investment and strategic planning.

The £1.3bn may include funding for local capital roads projects aimed at reducing traffic congestion, but there are questions over how quickly the additional funding can be translated into spades in the ground and so provide the required local economic stimulus through the highways supply chain.

Earlier this month, the Local Government Association urged government to use local road maintenance as the conduit for channeling additional funding, calling for an additional £1bn to solve the nation's local road condition crisis.

"The Government's own traffic projections predict a potential increase in local traffic of up to 55% by 2040. Councils desperately need long-term and consistent funding to invest in the resurfacing projects which our road network needs over the next decade," the LGA's transport spokesman, councillor Martin Tett, said.

The Department for Transport's Challenge Fund for local capital projects could be the selected means for directing roads funding, but this will still demand that local authorities go through further rounds of bidding for the cash available, before then working to get projects onto site.

"The Challenge Fund may be used, for road improvements and bridges and drainage improvements; things that support resilience. But anything that supports new-build or large schemes will be difficult to deliver quickly," said the vice-President of CIHT (Chartered Institution of Highways & Transportation), Matthew Lugg.

"There is enormous scope for local road maintenance to provide the desired stimulus because it's so important for local economies and schemes can be shovel ready, certainly within six to 12 months."

There is also a lot of potential in David Quarmby's new approach of looking at how investment should be channeled into key journey-routes, Lugg said. A report by David Quarmby and Phil Carey for the Rees Jefferys Road Fund maps out the routes most important to local economies, using combinations of national and local roads. The new map produced can help plan where investment should be directed, but the problem of getting the money to site quickly enough remains.

"Local highway authorities will be looking at the pinchpoints that need fixing to help jopurney improvements, but we have also got to look at finding slicker ways of delivery. There are good frameworks in place, such as the Midlands Highway Alliance, for example, but this still needs to be resourced," Lugg said. "It remains to be seen where the funding can be funnelled to deliver it quickly. What the local roads sector needs most is a clearer pipeline of investment for the next five to 10 years."