Congestion on the M4 around Newport could be tackled at almost a third of the cost of the Welsh Government’s proposed relief motorway, according to this new report for the IWA and the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport.
The report ‘The Blue Route: a cost effective solution to relieving M4 congestion around Newport’ puts forward an alternative that would cost £380 million compared with the estimated cost of a new motorway of at least £936 million.
Known as the Blue route, it would use a combination of the A48 Newport Southern Distributor Road and the former Steelworks Road on the eastern side of Newport to create a new dual carriageway.
The report has been prepared by Professor Stuart Cole, a transport expert who has advised both the Welsh and UK governments. He says the case for the more expensive motorway option relies on an over-estimate of likely future traffic growth and fails to take account of the impact of theMetro light rail system.