More money for maintenance and more early-warning messages of traffic jams were announced today in a £1.68bn package for England's roads.

The Highways Agency's plans for 2002-03 will see £740m spent on maintenance and £698m on major road schemes.

The pledges also included a commitment to carry out 90% of routine maintenance at off-peak times or at night, and a deal by which payments to a private road builder are reduced if average speed of vehicles on the road dips below a set level.

A 33-mile section of the A1(M) between Darrington and Dishforth in Yorkshire - to be built as a public private partnership - will be the first to have payments to the builder determined by traffic speed.

Eight major road schemes will open to the public this year: the £17m A27 Polegate bypass near Eastbourne in East Sussex; the A1 Willowburn-Denwick in Northumberland; the A6 Great Glen bypass in Leicestershire; the A43 Silverstone bypass in Northamptonshire; the A43 Whitfield Turn-Brackley Hatch improvement in Northamptonshire, Leicestershire and Oxfordshire; the A43 M40-B4031 improvements in Northamptonshire, Leicestershire and Oxfordshire; the A66 Stainburn and Great Clifton bypass in Cumbria; and the A11 Roudham Heath-Attleborough improvement in Norfolk.

The Highways Agency chief executive, Tim Matthews, said he aimed to have only about 7-8% of the 5,841-mile motorway and trunk road network in England under maintenance at any one time.

Other plans set out today include:
· 125m of motorway to get automatic congestion warning systems, including stretches of the M1 in Northamptonshire and parts of the M6 in Cheshire and Staffordshire
· More variable message signs on motorways
· Junction improvements, cyclepaths and noise mitigation projects
· Installing improved emergency telephones along motorways