After 23 years of roadworks and congestion, one of the UK’s most expensive and complex road upgrade projects has finally been completed.
In South Wales the last traffic cone and contraflow was removed from the A465 Heads of the Valleys road, known locally as the Road from Hell on Friday night after a £2bn upgrade that started in 2002, says the BBC.
The 28-mile (45km) improvement is designed to bring prosperity to one of the UK’s most deprived areas and cut journey times between west Wales and the Midlands. Welsh ministers said the upgrade would boost the region, but opponents have criticised how long it has taken and the “extortionate” price tag.
The A465 crosses the south Wales coalfields, a national park and in some parts, twists close to people’s homes. Almost 70 structures – including more than 40 new bridges and a dozen new junctions – have been built as part of the upgrade.
“In 50 years’ time, experts will look back and say the single biggest thing the Welsh government has done to raise the prospects of Heads of the Valleys communities is building this road,” Wales’ Transport Secretary Ken Skates previously said.
“This is about generating jobs, prosperity, opportunities and better connecting and benefiting communities across the region.”
The Heads of the Valleys upgrade had been split into six sections – done from the most to least dangerous for drivers. The final stages cost £590m to physically build the road but because of the way the project is funded, it will cost £1.4bn – and the Welsh government has not yet paid a penny.
The final stretch between Dowlais Top in Merthyr Tydfil to Hirwaun in Rhondda Cynon Taf is being financed using the Mutual Investment Model (MIM). Instead of paying it off in one lump sum, the Welsh government will pay more than £40m a year for 30 years in return for an 11-mile stretch of road that will be maintained by a private firm until it is brought back into public ownership in 2055.
Plaid Cymru has called this way of funding a “waste of public money” and said private firms would “cream off” a “substantial amount of profit”.
(Pic: FCC Construction)
