Britain to invest heavily in road network

The British government has decided to triple its funding on the country's major road network in next eight years, calling on road building firms to get ready for a massive increase in work ahead of the biggest investment in the road network since the 1970s.

Roads Minister Robert Goodwill announced Monday that the country would invest more than 24 billion pounds (about $39 billion) in upgrading and improving the road network until 2021, Xinhua reported.

By the end of the next parliament, the government will be spending 3 billion pounds each year on improvements and maintenance for the strategic network alone, the transport department said.

It is estimated that the investment commitment made by the government would support nearly 30,000 new jobs across the construction sector.

Along with investing 10.7 billion pounds in major improvements for the country's strategic roads from 2015 to 2020/21, the government is also investing 6.1 billion pounds in resurfacing 80 percent of the major roads network. It also plans to invest another 6 billion pounds in tackling potholes on local authority roads, the transport department said.