News that £1.2 million is being released to improve the A3 Ham Barn roundabout near Petersfield has been welcomed by the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) South East England Region.
But the Institution has warned that similar investment is needed elsewhere in the county to maximise benefits for the economy.
Director of ICE South East England, John Laverty, said: “ICE South East England welcomes the announcement this week that £1.2 million is being spent improving the A27 Ford Roundabout at Arundel as the projections are that this work will support several development sites in the area by reducing congestion and making them more accessible.
"Those projections show that for a relatively small sum of money spent on infrastructure around 385 jobs will be created and more than 2,210 new homes can be built by 2020.
“We are pleased that this work will start and finish during 2013 allowing the benefits to be gained relatively quickly. This reinforces ICE’s message that investing in infrastructure brings benefits now and in the future.
"We believe that similar benefits can be generated in a cost effective way by investing relatively small sums in infrastructure projects elsewhere in the county and we hope that we will soon see funds released to allow such projects to go ahead.”
ICE South East England has more than 11,000 members living and working in the region. More information can be found at www.ice.org.uk/see. You can follow ICE South East England on Twitter: @ICE_SEEngland