In defiance of minister’s safety guidelines, highways bosses plan extra stretches of deadly roads
- Highways bosses are ignoring guidance for total of 84 miles of smart motorways
- Refuges will be 1.5 miles apart instead of one mile as advised by Grant Shapps
- Inquiry also said laybys that are 1 mile apart should be ‘retro-fitted’ on schemes
- National Highways says schemes were designed before the guidance was issued
More than 80 miles of deadly smart motorways are to be opened – despite demands from MPs that the rollout be paused.
The routes will have emergency refuges up to 1.5 miles apart, in defiance of safety guidelines laid down by Transport Secretary Grant Shapps that the distance should be no more than a mile.
National Highways bosses are ignoring the guidance for around 84 miles of smart motorways, the Mail has learnt.
Among them are nearly 15 miles of the M4 between junctions 3 and 8/9 and 15 miles of the M27 between junctions 4 and 11.
When 17 miles of the M6 between junctions 13 and 15 opens, it will also be with emergency laybys up to 1.5 miles apart.
It is the same for 23 miles of the M1 between junctions 13 and 16, a further ten miles of the M6 between junctions 21A and 26 and four miles of the M56 between junctions 6 and 8.
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