The 25 local schemes designed to ease congestion at specific pinch points come on the back of the 87 already announced this year.
Transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin also confirmed the go-ahead of the £111m M6-Heysham link road scheme, along with funding for projects to improve the M55 J1, A1, and M62 J19.
Also approved is the £37m electrification of the Wigan-to-Bolton railway line. A taskforce will report to the Transport Secretary within 12 months on the acceleration of further rail electrification schemes in the North of England.
Of the 25 new local pinch point schemes, many are expected to be delivered in 2014 and 2015. Today’s announcement brings the total number of schemes to receive investment from the government’s Local Pinch Point Fund to 112. In total, the DfT has provided £266m to local authorities for these schemes, enabling £511m of work to go ahead.
The full list of schemes approved for Trance 4, announced today, can be seen on the Department for Transport's website.
The largest of the schemes getting final clearance today is Lancashire County Council's M6-Heysham Link Road scheme, which will complete the connection from the M6 at Junction 34 to the Morecambe Bypass, improving access to the Port of Heysham. The contractor this is Costain, which has been on board since 2010.
A new junction on the M55 near Bartle, Preston, will be built to support the Preston, South Ribble and Lancashire city deal, at a cost of £25-30m. This development will provide relief for the congested M55 J1 at Broughton and improve access to the Warton enterprise zone.
The scope of the £64m A1 Lobley Hill to Dunston improvement scheme, announced in the 2012 autumn statement 2012, is being extended. Easing congestion on the A1 Western Bypass, the £20m extension scheme will provide an additional lane in both directions between Lobley Hill and the Coal House junction at the southern end of the existing scheme and from Dunston to Metro Centre junction on the southbound carriageway, giving a total continuous three-lane section of 6.4km.
Improvements to the M62 J19 near Rochdale include the installation of new traffic lights to facilitate a new link road between the M62 J19 and the A6045.
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