Penning kick-starts £88m road scheme
Major construction work on the £88.6m M4 road scheme near Bristol has been officially started by roads minister Mike Penning.
The multimillion-pound project is set to increase capacity, reduce congestion and improve safety on the M4 and M5.
The managed motorway scheme - the first of its kind in the South West - on the Almondsbury Interchange will cover 3.4 miles of the M4 between junctions 19 and 20 and 3.1 miles of the M5 between Junction 15 and Junction 17.
It is one of 20 major road improvement projects due to start construction before March 2015, as part of a £2.1bn government package of strategic road projects aimed at boosting the economy.
Penning said: "I am delighted that work is getting underway today to provide much-needed additional capacity on the M4 and M5 near Bristol, for more than 140,000 road users who travel on these motorways every day.
"The scheme will bring economic growth to the South West and is great news for jobs as well, with around 200 people working on this project at the height of construction."
