Mr. Peter Walsh:

Regarding the cross-section, we had many sections of the network where the standard would indicate that you should have a standard single carriageway without a divide. The development of a cross-section for four lanes without having hard shoulders but with pull-in areas was a small increase in the amount of blacktop road surface but allowed for the division of oncoming traffic from each other and to provide for safe passing. It is a hugely better cross-section from a safety point of view for the mainline traffic. We will keep under review the performance of the junctions and the manner in which a heavy goods vehicle might come on at a gradient, as well as the absence of the auxiliary lane that there would be on other roads.

The reason for the design is that this is a design standard that has been developed internationally. It works. One gets the benefit of the overtaking and the separation of traffic from oncoming traffic. Those safety benefits are huge. If it is a case of educating users of the road, I do not know what way we might have to go about that, but this is a significant improvement on the wide single carriageway with regard to safety performance. We may need to help people modify the use of it, such as moving into the right-hand lane if they see a slow-moving vehicle coming on. They do not have the benefit of auxiliary lanes to get their speed up but it has made it possible to build those roads.