Relief road inquiry ends
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• Britain's longest running public inquiry, into the building of the Birmingham relief road, has finished—but Midlands drivers must still wait to find out if the road is to be built.
The inquiry lasted 192 days and cost the Highways Agency £1.2m. Even if the scheme is approved quickly, completion in 1999 is the earliest date for Britain's first toll road.
Six inspectors have been involved in the project at a cost of £210,000; the HA says the inquiry has cost it about £20,000 a week.
Inspectors were deluged with complaints against the toll road. "Objections came from all angles," says the Highways Agency. "From national organisations objecting to new roads, to people who had complaints about how the development would affect their properties."
The proposed project is a 50/50 venture between Trafalgar House, and Italianbased Iritecna.