I recently wrote to the Roads Minister about the need for additional noise barriers to be installed on the M4:
Mr Andrew Jones MP
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State
Department for Transport
Great Minster House
33 Horseferry Road
London SW1P 4DR
9 December 2015
Dear Andrew
M4 Junctions 3 – 12 Smart Motorway : Noise Barriers
We had a brief discussion last week about the opportunity presented by the M4 Smart Motorway project to install additional noise barriers to alleviate the noise nuisance for my constituents living close to the M4 between junctions 10 and 12. I promised to send you maps giving details of where the additional barriers should be.
I have used the maps provided to me earlier in the year by the then Highways Agency. The maps are out of date in respect of low noise carriageway surfacing (the blue line). It has since been agreed that all carriageways between junctions 3 and 12 will be resurfaced using low noise materials. This makes sense.
The existing noise barriers are shown in red on the maps. The only new noise barrier currently proposed by Highways England is shown in orange on map sheet 5. While this proposal is welcome it does nothing to protect more densely areas or to counter the noise being bounced back to residents where barriers are installed on one side of the motorway only.
I have marked in green the places where additional barriers are needed. I very much hope that the installation of additional barriers can be agreed as part of the M4 Smart Motorway project.
Yours ever