M4 relief road backed by Chancellor

Published: 06 April 2013
By Chris Haycock

Notoriously slow, regular tailbacks and long queues are a regular occurence for motorists using the M4 motorway in South Wales. However, plans to build a new relief road has been backed by Chancellor George Osborne, although he has denied reports that it may be funded through the use of a toll. Plans for the section of dual carriageway around the Newport section of the M4 appears to have been dug up, three years after the ideas was scrapped as being too expensive. The Tory MP called the scheme one of the most important road schemes in the UK, saying that "I've never even seen a proposal and even considered a proposal for a toll road What I am spending a lot of time on is improving the M4 and working with the Welsh Assembly Government to get that new road sorted out - especially with the traffic around Newport. I hope the road is going to get built and I think there's a very strong case. It's one of the most important road schemes in the whole of the UK. It would be of huge benefit to south Wales." The planned initiative would see a new 14-mile section of dual carriageway that would be built to relieve traffic between Junctions 23 and 29 of the M4 Motorway, with the majority of traffic easing the area around the Brynglas Tunnels.