Highways England has announced it will carry out various road projects worth £3.8bn over the next five years.

The government-owned company has met with contractors and suppliers to reveal details of its plans for the Midlands and East of England.

The investment involves improvements and repairs taking place between this year and 2021.

A total of £1.8bn is to be invested in the Midlands.

The schemes will begin by 2021 and include:

• Improvements planned for M42 junction 6

• New smart motorway around the M42/M40 interchange

• Development of a new link road connecting M54, M6 and the M6 Toll

• New, bigger M6 Junction 10

• Plans to replace roundabouts at A50 Uttoxeter

• Widening of the A500 at Etruria, Stoke-on-Trent

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• New smart motorway between M6 junctions 13 and 15

• Improvements planned for A46 junctions

• A new smart motorway between junction 2 and 4 of the M6

• Improvement for the A38 Derby junctions

• Widening of the A5 Dodwells to Longshoot

• A new smart motorway between junction 23a and 25 of the M1

In addition, £2bn worth of schemes are to begin in the East of England by 2019/20.

They include:

• A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon major improvements in Cambridgeshire.

• Upgrading six sections of the A47/A12 corridor in Norfolk across a 115 mile section of the A47 between Peterborough and Great Yarmouth.

• Increasing capacity on the A1(M) providing an additional 14 lane miles to relieve congestion in Hertfordshire, including Stevenage and Welwyn Garden City.

• Upgrading technology at junctions on the M11 across Essex and Cambridgeshire, from Stansted Airport to Cambridge.

• Providing technology along the A12 in Essex and Suffolk from the M25 to Ipswich and widening the stretch between Chelmsford and the A120 to 3 lanes.

• Providing a new 13 mile stretch of dual carriageway on the A428 between western Cambridgeshire and the north east of Bedfordshire.

• Building 17 new cycle paths including along parts of the A12, A47, A120 and A5.

Roads Minister Andrew Jones said: "As part of our long term economic plan, we are making the biggest investment in roads in a generation."

(LM)