Express & Star

Make M6 Toll free during roadworks, says council boss

Drivers should be allowed to use the M6 Toll for free during a two-year roadworks scheme at a busy junction, a council boss has said.

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The M6 Toll

Walsall Council leader Mike Bird fears motorists will face chaos when work starts to overhaul Junction 10 of the M6, though Highways England have said they expect traffic to flow close to normal during daytime hours.

Councillor Bird said he was hoping to hold discussions with the operators of the M6 Toll over the idea.

He believes it is crucial to try and cut the volume of traffic while the work is being carried out at the notorious bottleneck between Wolverhampton and Walsall, also raising concerns that work to remove the Perry Barr A34 flyover and preparations for the Commonwealth Games will be done at the same time.

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It is not known at this stage whether M6 Toll bosses would be open to the idea of letting vehicles use the road for free. They have previously resisted calls to cut prices.

Two new bridges will be built over the M6 to replace the existing structures, while junctions will be widened as part of the £78 million project. Early work has started and main construction work is due to get under way in July.

Earlier this week Highways England project manager David Reed said disruption will be kept to a minimum and it will not be a repeat of the M5 viaduct work at Oldbury that ran over schedule and caused traffic misery.

Mr Reed said traffic will be kept flowing in peak times with only some overnight closures of the junction planned for the main bridge works.

Mr Reed said: “A lot of thinking, thought and consultation with the council has gone into the planning."

Walsall Council leader Mike Bird

Councillor Bird, however, said he was not convinced a job of such magnitude could be done without causing disruption to drivers.

The council leader said: "It is going to be murder. I want to have meaningful conversations about whether they can make the road free to alleviate the problems on the M6.

"There certainly needs to be some discussion with the M6 Toll operators during the Junction 10 works to see if they are in a position to alleviate the issues."

Calls to cut charges on the M6 Toll or scrap them completely have been growing among council bosses in the Black Country concerned about the levels of congestion on the main M6.

But operators of the toll road have said its main job is to take long-distance traffic, mainly lorries, off the motorway and that it does this successfully.