THOUSANDS of homes are to be blighted by noisy concrete roads for up to 30 more years after the Government secretly reneged on a promise to have them resurfaced with quieter materials.
Ministers pledged in 2000 to resurface all concrete motorways, dual carriageways and other trunk roads with quieter asphalt by 2011. That August the Prime Minister gave a personal commitment that stretches causing the worst disturbance would be replaced.
Tony Blair told people living near the A30 in Devon, who have endured a roar from the ribbed surface since it was installed in 1999, that it would be “resurfaced with a lower-noise surface”. He told local campaigners: “I can promise this problem will be tackled.”
In April 2003 Alistair Darling, the Transport Secretary, said that he was “now able to announce the timetable for the resurfacing of all stretches of concrete roads and that within four years we will resurface the 26 stretches affecting the largest number of people. The remaining stretches will be resurfaced between 2007 and 2011.”
But The Times has learnt that the Highways Agency secretly decided last year to abandon the timetable because of overspending on other schemes. Resurfacing concrete with porous asphalt costs £750,000 a mile. Agency officials were instructed not to publish the decision in case it embarrassed the Government.
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Concrete roads are now to be left untouched until they wear out. After 2011 there will still be more than 850 miles of trunk roads surfaced with concrete.
The roads are noisy because of the grooves at right angles to the direction of travel. These help to prevent skidding by removing water, and generate a hum as tyres pass over.
The Transport Research Laboratory measured noise from seventeen concrete roads: all but two exceeded the level residents had been told to expect. Tests by Exeter University by the ten-mile concrete stretch of the A30 near Exeter found that the noise was 8 to 13 decibels higher than the maximum recommended by the World Health Organisation.
The agency continued to use concrete until 2000 because it believed that the greater durability justified the extra noise. Concrete roads last for up to 40 years but asphalt has to be resurfaced every 5 to 10 years.
An agency spokesman said: “Following detailed scrutiny of . . . budgets, it was agreed the resurfacing of roads ahead of maintenance need, for noise alleviation reasons, would not be allocated funding.” The agency could not say when the remaining stretches would be replaced, he added. “We have no firm dates for resurfacing concrete roads. Progress will depend on the next Comprehensive Spending Review. It’s possible that some will remain as concrete for their working life.”
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Chris Grayling, the Shadow Transport Secretary, said: “It’s just not good enough for [Mr Darling] and the Prime Minister to tell the people affected that they will get rid of these noisy surfaces, and then do a U-turn behind the scenes.”