Timetable for completion of M54-M6 link road to be announced 'by next year'
A timetable for construction work on a £200 million road linking the M54 with the M6 northbound will be announced by next spring, the Government has said.
Earlier this week, the Department for Transport confirmed that the new two-mile road linking the M54 with the M6 northbound at Junction 11 near Featherstone would go ahead, set to be built at a cost of around £200m.
The project was first discussed in 2017 and approval for the scheme was confirmed in 2022 - before work was halted almost immediately by then Transport Secretary Grant Schapps over environmental concerns.
It was then called in as part of a wider review by the incoming Labour Government in 2024, which was seeking to plug a claimed £2.9 billion black hole in spending on infrastructure projects promised by the previous administration.
In a brief response to a question in the House of Commons this week, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said a full timetable for the project would be set out as part of wider government plans which would be completed by spring 2026.
"We will set out the timetable for the delivery of these schemes as we produce the next road investment strategy - RIS3 - which we will have done by the end of March next year," she said.
The comment came in response to a request from Stafford MP Leigh Ingham, who said the development was "hugely welcome" - and had asked when constituents in Staffordshire and Shropshire could expect work to re-commence on the scheme.
According to official estimates, the new link road will add around £630 million in economic benefits to the region, with the Government calculating that for every £1 spent building the road it will deliver £3.17 in benefits over the next 60 years.
Transport bosses have said the scheme will boost economic growth in Telford and Shrewsbury while improving access to jobs in areas such as the i54 business park, home to Jaguar Land Rover's electric motor plant in Wolverhampton.
Earlier in the session, Labour MP for Lichfield Dave Robertson hailed the Government's announcement earlier in the week that 50 new road and rail projects would go ahead as "great news for people across Lichfield, Burntwood and the villages."
"To the north, we have improvements on the A38, making access to the University of Derby easier; to the west, we have improvements to the M4 and M6 link road, which will be great for access to the i54, and to Telford and Wales. To the south, we have the Midlands Rail Hub, which will be excellent for the cross-city line," he said.
