Infrastructure Projects around Wales

Infrastructure Projects around Wales

Energy projects

In 2014 the Welsh Office identified 9 energy projects in Wales at various stages of planning as part of a UK government investment of £110 billion in electricity generation.

• Wylfa Newydd - £12 billion
• Anglesey Aluminium Biogas electricity plant - £1 billion
• Pen Y Cymoed Electricity - £365 million
• Gwynt Y Môr Electricity - £2 billion
• Mid Wales Transmission - £207 million
• North Wales Upgrades Transmission - £549 million
• Wylfa – Pembroke HVDC Link Transmission - £672 million
• Wales & West Gas Distribution - £849 million
• Amlwch LNG terminal - £330 million
• Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon - £1 billion

• Total - £18.972 billion

Also remember the 2012 £3.25 billion investment into the LNG terminals, pipeline and power station based in Milford Haven in West Wales.

Total for energy based infrastructure projects £21.2 billion since 2012 either being completed, being constructed or planned.

Rural Development Programme

Rural Development programme is worth £953 million; £47 million less than the billion pound level between May 2015 (approved by EU partners) and 2020. The Rural Development Programme focuses on the challenges of areas with a sparse population and is mostly targeted at improving agriculture and the environment. It targets the 9 mostly rural Local Authorities - Isle of Anglesey; Gwynedd; Conwy; Denbighshire; Powys; Ceredigion; Pembrokeshire; Carmarthenshire & Monmouthshire. The criteria for a rural area is set by the EU which provides many of the funding sources. To find out more about rural issues read issue 13 of GITN (note that extra funds were later obtained by the Welsh Government providing the £953 million).

Broadband

Many parts of mainly Mid & West Wales had very poor access to fast broadband internet speeds. The Welsh Government spent £225 million for superfast broadband which will connect up 96% of addresses by the end of 2017. Check out the map below to see where most of this money needed to be spent.

Check out GitN issue 8.

Plans for City Regions

It is proposed that Wales will benefit directly from two proposed city regions. The Cardiff City Region and the Swansea City Region.

URL - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H83Va9ET0BA

In South Wales a city region plans are advanced incorporating 10 current Local Authority areas to form the Cardiff City Region. The region would be based around the capital city in Cardiff and help to link the South Wales Valleys and the Newport/Cwmbran and Bridgend urban areas. Public transport will be improved with the construction of a new network of busses, trains, trams & lightrail transport in what has been termed the South Wales Metro. The Cardiff City Region plan will cost £1.2 billion of public money, £500 million from the UK government, £500 million from the Welsh Government and at least £120 million from the 10 local authorities.

Image: http://gov.wales/docs/det/publications/160224-potential-metro-map-image-en.gif

Swansea and West Wales have put forward plans for city region; this would cost an estimated £1.3 Billion with £241 million coming from the UK & Welsh Governments; £360 million borrowed by the Local Authorities (Swansea, Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire & Neath Port Talbot) and the rest from private businesses.

Transport Projects

We last looked at transport issues in issue 8 of GITN.

In North Wales the main East-West road is the A55:

• Planning has started on a proposed £200 million project termed the Deeside Corridor Project to improve East-West road transport in North Wales.
• £22 million is being spent on the Abergwyngregyn to Tai’r Meibion Improvement.
• At least the same amount will need to be spent on the plan to build new junctions to replace roundabouts at Llanfairfechan (J15) and Penmaenmawr (J16).
• Planning is progressing quickly in regards to improving transport to Anglesey with the current Welsh Government preferring to construct a totally new crossing though nothing has been ruled out yet in terms of planning meetings. The proposed cost is £133 million.

Already in 2017 the Welsh Government has started small scale projects which will form part of the proposed North Wales Metro which should rival the plans for the South Wales Metro with a similar price tag of £500 million. In the current year £50 million has been budgeted however large scale progress cannot be made until the devolution of a critical franchise happens 2018.

Image: http://www.welshlabour.wales/nwmetro

To the South of Powys is the A465 which is currently having £880 million being spent on it. This road is an essential link between mid & West Wales and South Wales as well as the ‘Heads’ of the South Wales Valleys.

Image: http://gov.wales/deet/topicl2/transport/roads/maintaining-road-network/trunkroads.gif

Check out all major current and planned improvements on the Welsh Government Website.

Currently £1 billion of UK government money is being spent in South Wales on the Electrification of the main railway line between London and Swansea.

With all of the billions being invested around Wales one project with an expected £1-1.2 billion price tag is getting a lot of attention some good but most bad. This is a proposed new section of the M4 motorway. This proposed section would take motorway traffic to the South of Newport. This argument has been going on since consultations to solve the problems started in 1993 - 24 years! 

• The M4 is the single most important road in Wales; linking South Wales and West Wales to the rest of the UK.
• The Newport section carries more than 100,000 vehicles/day.
• The section was originally designed in the 1960’s as a ‘Newport Bypass’ and as such does not meet current safety standards of a motorway (due to bends and gradients (slopes), lacks a hard shoulder for safety and has too many junctions in a short length.
• Lanes are forced from 8 (three each way plus a hard shoulder) into four (two each way) as they go through two tunnels.
• Reliable studies estimate the cost of £1-1.2 billion but the benefits to the economy £2.2-2.6. In rough terms it will make twice as much as it costs for Wales.
• Since consultations began local businesses have lost over £1 billion due to the congestion (traffic jams) alone. Over £50 million each year. Every day tens of thousands of people are caught in the jams which go on for miles. The problems here have stopped many billions of business investment across West, Mid and South Wales.