BUSINESS lobby group Chambers of Commerce North West has called on the Government to accelerate plans to improve the M6 motorway link between the West Midlands and the North West.
In a written submission to the Department of Transport, the organisation said the majority of its members supported an option to build a new expressway alongside the existing three lane carriageways.
The Chambers says this option would be preferable to widening the M6 to four lanes in each direction. The lane widening option would cause too much disruption to traffic during construction, argues the Chambers.
However in their submission, the Chambers warn that the time expected to be taken to complete the project is too long.
The submission reads: "Early information suggests that an expressway could be completed by 2016. If nothing is done for the next 11 years then the route will be completely defunct as a result of congestion.
The Chambers, which has completed a consultation exercise with its 7,000 member firms, also says it is concerned at the plan to end the expressway at junction 19. The submission explains: "This is not a workable option. The link road between the M6 and the M56 (the A556) is already suffering as a result of increases in traffic coming to the North West. While we accept that plans are under way to help relieve some of the problems from this route, bringing an extra road to an end at this point will render any of these measures useless."
Chambers vice chairman Peter Mileham said: "The M6 may have been adequate in the past, but traffic levels are getting greater all the time.
"We need the Government to take action about traffic congestion into and out of the region.
"You have to balance the environmental issues associated with the expressway option against the disruption and congestion from widening the existing road. The expressway would have the advantage that traffic would remain free flowing during construction."
The original plan for a two-lane expressway was first published by Whitehall last summer.
Last month, Transport Minister Alistair Darling said he had commissioned further work to assess the feasibility of the plan.
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