At the creation of TfL, Street Management inherited a number of major highway projects, each at varying stages of design or construction. With the development of the Mayor’s Transport Strategy it was necessary to review these schemes in line with Policy 4G.8 which states:
“Road proposals promoted by Transport for London, the London boroughs or any other party, including revised versions of schemes inherited from the Highways Agency, will be assessed against the objectives of the Transport Strategy to ensure that they broadly meet the following criteria:
Contribute to London’s economic regeneration and development.
Do not increase the net traffic capacity of the corridor unless essential to regeneration.
Provide a net benefit to London’s environment.
Improve safety for all users.
Improve conditions for pedestrians, cyclists, disabled people, public transport and business.
Integrate with local and strategic land use planning policies.
Where schemes worsen conditions against any of these criteria, there will be a presumption that the scheme should not proceed unless benefits in other areas very substantially outweigh any disbenefits.”
Following the review schemes were either approved, amended or cancelled. In particular those schemes that increased the net traffic capacity were significantly scaled down or cancelled. The changes made to align the individual projects with the Mayor’s Strategy were dependent on the stage of development of each the project. These changes ranged from complete redesign (and in some cases cancelling) of schemes that were at an early stage of development, to more minor changes, such as environmental enhancements, to schemes nearing completion. The current status of each of the major highway projects, and how each has been appraised, is described below.
A13 DBFO
This comprises a number of individual schemes:
A13 Ironbridge to Canning Town Improvement
A13/A112 Prince Regent Lane Improvement
A13/A117 Woolwich Manor Way Improvement
A13 Old Roding Bridge Improvement
A13 Movers Lane Improvement
Minor changes to the scheme details, at minimal additional cost, are being adopted to conform to the Mayor’s Transport Strategy. These include better facilities for pedestrians, cyclists and bus operations. More major changes were not possible because of the contractual position.
The schemes were justified using the DETR’s New Approach To Appraisal (NATA), which is based on the government’s five criteria of environment, safety, economy, accessibility and integration. A summary of the Appraisal Summary Tables (ASTs) for the schemes, which were prepared by TfL Street Management, is shown in the table on the following page.
The economic assessment for each of the five individual schemes is summarised in the table below. It should be noted that for comparison purposes these should be taken as approximate values only as they relate to data prepared for each of the scheme public inquiries which occurred at different times.
1 The Roding Bridge Improvement was included in the A13 DBFO project as a capital bridge maintenance scheme to replace a substandard bridge which had weight and width restrictions and is the second phase replacement of the River Roding Crossing, the eastbound structure having already been replaced.
Summary Assessment of A13 DBFO Schemes taken from the AST (Appraisal Summary Table) prepared by Street Management for each scheme
Coulsdon
The Coulsdon scheme was also justified using NATA, based on the governments five criteria of environment, safety, economy, accessibility and integration. A summary of the Appraisal Summary Tables (ASTs) for the schemes is shown in the table on the following page.
The economic assessment for the scheme, which was incorporated as part of NATA, is summarised in the table below. The cost of the scheme (in 1996 prices) was estimated to be £39.9 million. This is discounted to give the present value of costs in the table.
Present Value of Costs (PVC)
£22.4 million
Present Value of Benefits (PVB)
£160 million
Benefit Cost Ratio (BCR)
7.2
The scheme was reduced in scale to deliver all of the environmental and congestion relief benefits of the previous scheme but, in line with the Mayor’s Transport Strategy, not to provide for unrestrained future traffic growth. These changes have also provided additional benefits for pedestrians, cyclists, buses and freight. The reduced cost of the scheme is now £25.0 million (at cureent prices, excluding land costs). Part of this reassessment has been provided by positive responses to the public consultation exercises.
A406 North Circular Road Schemes
The three inherited schemes were:
A1 Great North Way to A1 Falloden Way (Regents Park Road)
The original schemes were assessed using NATA, and the government’s five criteria of environment, safety, economy, accessibility and integration. However, the schemes could not be justified under policy 4G.8 of the Mayor’s Transport Strategy. Very much smaller scale schemes are now being developed for Regents Park Road and Golders Green Road and the NATA approach is no longer appropriate. The schemes are therefore being assessed and justified on the usual smaller scale scheme criteria of accident reduction, benefits to pedestrians/cyclists, improvements to junction operation and improvements to bus operations. The assessments are not yet complete.
The largest element of the whole project is the Bounds Green to Green Lanes section. The original £200M project was abandoned as it did not conform with the Mayor’s Transport Strategy. TfL is developing three new options (none larger than £20 million) for public consideration. The proposals will conform with the Mayor’s Strategy and an appraisal will be undertaken, with the results being reported as part of the public consultation in Spring 2002.
