A 60mph speed limit could be introduced on the M1 to improve air quality in Sheffield, according to reports.
The mandatory speed limit, if approved, would be in place between 7am and 7pm seven days a week between junctions 32 and 35a.
The plan coincides with Department for Transport (DfT) plans for a £106 million smart motorway, which is due to launch in March.
The then transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin said:"Let me be absolutely clear, I want all motorways to run at 70mph. While it sometimes makes sense to use variable limits to keep people moving, blanket reductions are not acceptable.”
He instead asked Highways England to investigate alternatives.
Highways England has stressed however, that the speed limit is just one of “a range of other mitigation options” being trialled, according to the Guardian.
Other options, it reports, include painting barriers with “catalytic paints” designed to remove pollutants from the air and putting piles of “mineral polymer” – made from a secret compound that absorbs nitrogen dioxide – alongside the road.
A Highways England spokesperson said: “Smart motorways are central to the modernisation of England’s motorways, reducing congestion and improving journey time reliability by smoothing traffic flows.
"One of our key challenges in delivering the £15 billion government investment in infrastructure is tackling the issue presented by air quality and in order to meet environmental targets we are investing in wider programme of air quality research to help address this.”
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Gareth has more than 20 years’ experience as a journalist having started his career in local newspapers in the 1990s. Prior to joining Fleet News in 2008, he worked in the public sector as a media advisor and is currently news editor at Fleet News.
leaning on my shovel - 23/01/2017 11:33
Most of the M1 has been a 50 limit for years! The same goes for the M3, which is a joke; 4 years and counting, the amazing Millau Viaduct only took 4 years 2 months to complete!!!! The M5 south of Birmingham and past Gloucester, the M4 east of Newbury, I could go on. Why does it take so long to add an extra lane, which is already there as a hard shoulder anyway, or add a concrete central barrier? It's not necessary to cone off 10,20 or more miles of motorway at a time, especially when you rarely see people actually working, except sometimes a group of men standing around whilst an excavator driver manoeuvres a handful of soil from A to B, something that could and should be done much quicker with an actual shovel rather than £80,000 worth of plant equipment. I say again, just over 4 years to build the Millau Viaduct one the greatest structures in the world, and in the UK it's already taken longer than that to add an extra lane to 15 miles of existing motorway, and there's still no completion date!