The Government has pledged £24 billion to add 900 extra lane miles of road capacity to England’s highway network by 2021.
The investment includes more than £9 billion on maintenance, £6 billion of which will be spent on resurfacing 3,000 miles of road network.
Roads Minister John Hayes blamed previous governments for underspending on the UK’s roads.
Hayes said: “As a crucial part of our long-term economic plan to secure a brighter future for Britain, we are fixing problems that have been created by governments of the past by delivering around 35% more capacity on our roads than was delivered in the nine years up to 2010.
“It is because of the difficult decisions that this government has taken that we are able to triple investment in our major roads to over £3 billion a year up to 2021.”
Hayes said the extra capacity would be achieved mainly by the use of smart motorways and selective widening to minimise the environmental impact.
More road schemes are expected to be added to the programme following the 2014 Autumn Statement, which could include solutions identified as part of six feasibility studies that are looking at dealing with some of the most notorious and long-standing traffic hotspots on England’s roads, including the A303 in the south west and the A47 in the east of England.