Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 14 June 2016 to Question 39602, what assessment he has made of the extent to which carrying out roadworks consecutively would reduce annual average individual journey times.

As part of the economic assessment of all projects, Highways England undertake an assessment of journey delays that will occur during the construction period. This considers the extent to which roadworks arrangements and adjacent schemes would minimise average journey times, whilst providing the safest environment for both road workers and the travelling public.

Highways England are delivering a large five year programme of improvements which adds much needed capacity to some of the most congested parts of the strategic road network to support economic growth. Where possible, this is combined with planned maintenance which is cost effective and reduces the need for further work to be carried out once construction has been completed. This reduces disruption in the longer term.