Plans to open M1 hard shoulder spark major safety concerns

The Highways Agency was due to begin work on the so-called Managed Motorway - All Lane Running (MM-ALR) scheme this month, but it is now estimated that the earliest start date will be in April.

Under the scheme, traffic will be allowed to use the hard shoulder between junctions 32 to 35a near Sheffield at all times of day and night - the first time this has been tried anywhere in Britain

Several factors have contributed to the delay, but “significant safety concerns” expressed by all three 999 services, breakdown firms and motoring organisations may push work back further.

Other managed motorways, including the M42, are already in use, and a scheme is currently under construction on the M62 in West Yorkshire, but these only allow traffic in the hard shoulder at peak times.

Ken Wheat, the manager of the South Yorkshire Safer Roads Partnership, which represents the emergency services and other public bodies in the county, including councils, said “negotiations were ongoing”.

“At the moment the emergency services are at one about this. All have expressed concerns about how they are going to operate safely under this new regime,” Mr Wheat said yesterday.

“We have been in negotiation with the Highways Agency for several months and we have not yet found a solution that addresses the majority of those concerns and as a result the project does not have our full endorsement.”

Mr Wheat said senior officials had been working with the Highways Agency to avoid having to delay the scheme further and “reach a situation that is acceptable to all parties.”

He added: “We recognise that motorway improvements are needed in South Yorkshire and we wouldn’t wish to prevent them.

“But clearly we have our duties and responsibilities to those who have to manage and enforce the motorway and people who have to work on the route.”

On November 9 last year, Chief Supt Keith Lumley of South Yorkshire Police expressed his concerns over the scheme after a crash involving a lorry and several cars at junction 31.

Speaking at the scene of the crash, he said; “This is right at the start of the proposed managed motorways scheme and causes me some concern about the hard shoulder running live all the time.

“Stationary vehicles have nowhere to go and you are more likely to get accidents like the one we have today.”

Concerns have also been voiced at a national level by both the Association of Chief Police Officers and the Chief Fire Officers Association while the AA and RAC have also made representations.

The concerns were due to be discussed at a meeting of South Yorkshire’s integrated transport authority at a meeting today, which oversees transport issues on a countywide basis.

In a report written for the authority, Frances Adams, the officer who has been involved in negotations with the Highways Agency revealed the startling 200 per cent increase collision risk.

Ms Adams said the risk applies to stationary vehicles only, and said the current talks were aimed at reducing that figure to allow work to begin in April.

Nobody at the Highways Agency was available to respond to the concerns in detail yesterday, but a statement included in Ms Adams report said it recognised that while “the majority of risks reduce there are some risks that increase”.

It added: “The agency will be workingn collectively to understand what further solutions may be employed.”