Skip to main content

UK government announces US$60.6 billion infrastructure spending

UK prime minister David Cameron and chancellor George Osborne have launched a year of major infrastructure investment, with US$60.6 billion of spending planned across 200 projects. Many of the projects due to start construction in 2014 and 2015 are key transport schemes, ranging across road, rail, local transport and airport infrastructure as well as flood defence schemes. These include the Mersey Gateway Bridge, Sheffield Lower Don Valley and Exeter flood defence schemes, major roads such as the M6 J
April 23, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
UK prime minister David Cameron and chancellor George Osborne have launched a year of major infrastructure investment, with US$60.6 billion of spending planned across 200 projects.

Many of the projects due to start construction in 2014 and 2015 are key transport schemes, ranging across road, rail, local transport and airport infrastructure as well as flood defence schemes.

These include the Mersey Gateway Bridge, Sheffield Lower Don Valley and Exeter flood defence schemes, major roads such as the M6 J10A-13, Nottingham tram extension, Heathrow Terminal 2 upgrade and Gwynt y Môr offshore wind farm, which is currently the largest in construction anywhere in Europe.

These projects are part of the US$60.6 billion of planned investment – US$8.4 billion public investment, US$35.3 billion private investment and US$17 billion in joint public and private investment - in infrastructure across the country that could support over 150,000 jobs in construction and many thousands more in other sectors following completion. This includes the start of a US£64 billion programme of rail spending over the next five years.

In addition, there is expected to be further investment of up to US$25 billion in oil and gas this year.

Related Content

  • Strong demand for TIGER grants
    May 16, 2014
    Applications to the US Department of Transportation for its sixth round of Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grants totalled US$9.5 billion, 15 times the US$600 million set aside for the program, demonstrating the continued need for transportation investment nationwide, according to an announcement by Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. The Department received 797 eligible applications, compared to 585 in 2013, from 49 states, US territories and the District of Columbia.
  • Thailand to spend over US$19 billion for six more MRT rail lines
    August 24, 2012
    The Mass Rapid Transit Authority (MRTA) of Thailand is to make immediate plans to develop six additional mass rapid transit (MRT) rail lines that should be operational by 2020. The lines will measure a length of 200 kilometres and entail US$19.16 billion in combined investments. The move was spurred by a forecast that suggests some three million passengers a day will use the MRT rail system in Bangkok by 2020.
  • Netherlands to invest in roads, public transport
    September 19, 2013
    The Dutch government is to invest US$3.74bn in 2014 to build 149 kilometres of roads in the Netherlands, according to minister for transport Melanie Schultz. Projects include the Blankenburg Tunnel west of Rotterdam, improvements to traffic flow around Utrecht and extension of the A15 ring road. A further US$2.3 billion is to be spent on public transport, including railway projects to improve travel between Schiphol airport, Amsterdam, Eindhoven and Nijmegen and improvements to the public transport trav
  • Making the most of Michigan
    January 9, 2018
    Michigan DoT’s Kirk Steudle takes time out from the ITS World Congress in Montreal to talk to Colin Sowman. Thirty years ago, a professional engineer named Kirk Steudle joined Michigan Department of Transportation (MDoT). Today he’s the state transportation director, responsible for more than 16,000km (10,000 miles) of state highways (including 4,000 bridges), some 2,500 employees and a budget of more than $4 billion. We caught up with Steudle during the ITS World Congress in Montreal and asked how he