Roadwork Britain: How a decision from Boris Johnson is still delaying your commute

The fig of roadworks successful Britain has much than doubled successful the past 2 years - and frustrated drivers are much apt than ever to get stuck down impermanent postulation lights.

Exclusive information obtained by Sky News reveals determination were 425,524 miles of roadworks crossed the UK past year. That's capable to agelong astir the satellite a whopping 17 times.

It marks a 110% summation compared to 2023, erstwhile determination were 203,000 miles of lane closures.

Part of the crushed for the surge is the 2019 pledge by past premier curate Boris Johnson to roll retired afloat fibre broadband to each country of the federation arsenic portion of his "levelling up" agenda.

Causeway Technologies infrastructure manager Nick Smee told Sky News: "It's perfectly existent that the rollout of super-fast fibre has caused a immense spike due to the fact that we each privation those facilities.

"The occupation is you can't bash it without digging up the roads."

The archetypal deadline for Johnson's 'Project Gigabit' was this year, but this has been delayed to 2032, meaning drivers could look astatine slightest different six years of disruptions.

Meanwhile, the authorities is hoping different 100,000 nationalist electrical conveyance charging points volition beryllium installed by the extremity of the decade, which volition inevitably pb to much asphalt being ripped up for the cables to beryllium laid.

Roadworks are present a regular occurrence successful ample parts of the country, with exigency repairs often needed for leaking Victorian h2o pipes and different utilities.

In immoderate cases, the aforesaid streets are repeatedly dug up successful speedy succession, starring to misery for motorists and an accrued hazard of potholes.

Drivers successful London trundled done 490,893 roadworks successful 2024, the highest fig nationwide, averaging much than 1,300 sites crossed the superior each day.

Kent recorded 134,430 projects, and Surrey had 132,291. Essex and Hampshire implicit the database of the apical 5 roadwork hotspots.

In January 2024, the past Conservative government said it would ace down connected disruptive thoroughfare works.

The Labour government stood by the pledge and said it would commencement charging firms that unnecessarily permission roads closed implicit weekends, which hadn't antecedently been possible.

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Officials besides planned to treble fines for delayed roadworks by this summer. However, the Department for Transport has present told Sky News that won't hap until adjacent twelvemonth astatine the earliest "due to different precocious precedence legislative enactment pushing it back".

Clive Bairsto, main enforcement of the commercialized relation Street Works UK, said: "If you overfine people, the manufacture volition beryllium forced to usage firms of little integrity and you'll extremity up with the mediocre performers being utilized to bash jobs alternatively than the bully performers, which is what we privation to encourage."