The £85m-a-year traffic jam ...

It was supposed to turn one of the capital's most notorious bottlenecks into a free-flowing super-highway.

Scores of properties were demolished but the much-vaunted road widening of the A40 Western Avenue never happened. Now, eight years after the £109 million scheme was dropped, engineers have calculated the cost of jams on one of London's most important arterial routes: £85 million a year - almost double an estimate made in 1997.

Each weekday from 6.30am, huge queues build at the Hanger Lane Gyratory System in Alperton. Congestion peaks at 8.30am and does not begin to clear until 9.30am. In the evening, jams form at Western Circus from 3.30pm.

The three-mile stretch once earmarked for widening takes an average 26 minutes to negotiate in peak hours. In total, 26,284 vehicles carrying 61,267 people are affected each weekday.

The survey, conducted by engineering firm Vanguard, shows that each traveller wastes £1,850 a year on fuel, lost time and wear and tear on vehicles.

"The damage that road is wreaking not just to people's health but to their pockets is phenomenal," said Mac McCullagh, managing director of Vanguard, which is based by the A40.

"In 1997 we calculated the annual cost to those using this stretch of road was £43.8 million. Today the bill is ?85 million. All because politicians changed their minds and left transport to suffer."

The road-widening scheme was approved in 1991 and more than 150 homes and office buildings were compulsorily purchased by the Transport Department. But in 1996, John Major's Tory Government shelved the project, saying it had run out of money.

After Labour was elected in 1997 it scrapped the scheme. Transport for London, now responsible for the A40, has no plans to resurrect it.

Today Mr McCullagh hoisted a 20ft banner above his HQ just off the A40 to highlight Vanguard's survey, which says the dual carriageway is "far too narrow" for the volume of traffic.

Vanguard based its cost calculation on the minimum wage of ?4.85 an hour and fuel consumption of 20mpg.

A TfL spokesman said: "Congestion across London is something we pay particular attention to, with measures including drawing people back to public transport and alleviating bottlenecks."

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