Dual carridge way proposal for the A303

[Dillyblue]

I have lived about 20 mins drive from the Countess roundabout and the stones for many years and as phillyfaddle says the road is horrendous a lot of the time especially when the two lanes go down to one or if there is a slow car driver or lorry. Two lanes all the way would be great but as Smeble writes any work would possibly add even more hell in queueing and take years to complete so friends and I would prefer no changes!

An upside to living minutes away from the road is that we are fairly close to Worthy Farm!! x

[Purple aki squat]

Dual carriageway shorely? 

[Bisque]

Talking to my father, it looks like it's going to be a "mega project" much like the Thames Tideway he is currently working on.

& yes if an archeological importance is found then changes will have to be made to the proposal much like when building shafts in London recently & coming across mass graves of Black Death victims. That will supposedly be dealt with via scanning the ground before hand

[Bisque]

He's also doing Crossrail/HS2. Here's what his firm currently say about it all.

 

http://www.lba.london/lba-news/project_category/highway/

[Chawk]

Feel for locals who have to use the road, but for everyone else it gets to a point where people just have to drive less, it's not worth cutting up the country more for the sake of cars. 

Edited January 14, 2017 by Chawk

[Charm]

This needs some signatures. 
Charm x

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/save-stonehenge-world-heritage-site#signature-form

[phillyfaddle]

5 hours ago, Charm said:

This needs some signatures. 
Charm x

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/save-stonehenge-world-heritage-site#signature-form

Thanks for that Charm - signed x

[guypjfreak]

12 hours ago, Charm said:

This needs some signatures. 
Charm x

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/save-stonehenge-world-heritage-site#signature-form

OK so I agree with you on this BUT if we all sign this and then say it holds up the diggers for another year it's gonna cost loads more and then they might decide to go over the land instead.. And that would be disastrous.. They only found the outer ring a little while ago so yea there's definitely more to find.. 

For all that as I said I agree and will sign but come on everyone agrees something needs to be done sooner rather than later.. I would rather they build well around the stones ie for a better word a ring road and then close all the near by roads even the last one that can be parked on over night... Some may know the place....  

So in short I'll sign but something HAS to be done...... 

[Charm]

On 14/01/2017 at 9:33 PM, guypjfreak said:

OK so I agree with you on this BUT if we all sign this and then say it holds up the diggers for another year it's gonna cost loads more and then they might decide to go over the land instead.. And that would be disastrous.. They only found the outer ring a little while ago so yea there's definitely more to find.. 

For all that as I said I agree and will sign but come on everyone agrees something needs to be done sooner rather than later.. I would rather they build well around the stones ie for a better word a ring road and then close all the near by roads even the last one that can be parked on over night... Some may know the place....  

So in short I'll sign but something HAS to be done...... 

To be honest guy I don't know how I feel about it as the traffic issues have hardly any impact on my life but the statement below that's on the petition made me want to sign it. 
Charm x

The whole Stonehenge landscape has an outstanding universal value that is of immense significance for all people for all time, and this transcends any consideration of sorting out a 21st century part-time traffic jam.

[guypjfreak]

Bump 

[GlastoEls]

On 13/01/2017 at 7:04 PM, Dillyblue said:

I have lived about 20 mins drive from the Countess roundabout and the stones for many years and as phillyfaddle says the road is horrendous a lot of the time especially when the two lanes go down to one or if there is a slow car driver or lorry. Two lanes all the way would be great but as Smeble writes any work would possibly add even more hell in queueing and take years to complete so friends and I would prefer no changes!

An upside to living minutes away from the road is that we are fairly close to Worthy Farm!! x

Ah, I was trying to remember which Efester I knew who lived near Stonehenge, @Dillyblue - I though of you as soon as I heard this story!!

[Smeble]

There seems to be some prep work going on just north of the A303 just after countess roundabout, lots of long narrow trenches down to the chalk, first thought was archeology dig but it's been done very quickly with a JCB and no sign of any beardy types with trowls and brushes.

Edited January 19, 2017 by Smeble

[eFestivals]

Nah, won't be prep work. The main work isn't signed off yet, and is a long way from being signed off, if it ever is.

 

[Pinhead]

Drainage?

[eFestivals]

3 minutes ago, Pinhead said:

Drainage?

that was my first thought, tho i'm not sure drainage is really an issue there as its chalk.

[Pinhead]

Good point. Maybe prep for road subsidence work?

[Smeble]

I'll keep an eye on it, I drive past it 3 or 4 times a week, it's not drainage, it's lots of separate trenches at 90* to the road in a field, lots of work vans and storage containers in a bit of scrub land just before the road narrows to go past Stonehenge. 

May not be pep work but may be investigative work for the next stage of the proposed route.

Edited January 19, 2017 by Smeble

[Harebell]

16 minutes ago, Smeble said:

I'll keep an eye on it, I drive past it 3 or 4 times a week, it's not drainage, it's lots of separate trenches at 90* to the road in a field, lots of work vans and storage containers in a bit of scrub land just before the road narrows to go past Stonehenge. 

May not be pep work but may be investigative work for the next stage of the proposed route.

Do you mean at/near Larkhill? The MoD are in the early stages of building hundreds of houses there so might be something to do with that? Also believe they have been doing some exploratory boreholes in the area - water will have to be managed if a non-permeable tunnel is boarded into the porous chalk.  Public consultations are being held in the local area at the moment (I went to one yesterday) but all of the info is exactly the same as on the website here https://highwaysengland.citizenspace.com/cip/a303-stonehenge/

[Smeble]

9 minutes ago, Harebell said:

Do you mean at/near Larkhill? The MoD are in the early stages of building hundreds of houses there so might be something to do with that? Also believe they have been doing some exploratory boreholes in the area - water will have to be managed if a non-permeable tunnel is boarded into the porous chalk.  Public consultations are being held in the local area at the moment (I went to one yesterday) but all of the info is exactly the same as on the website here https://highwaysengland.citizenspace.com/cip/a303-stonehenge/

It's right next to the A303, started on Monday I think, if you look on map one on the link you posted the eastern tunnel entrance marker is pretty much bang on where the trenches are being dug

[Pinhead]

Who waits for that tiresome old planning permission thing these days eh? 

[Harebell]

3 minutes ago, Smeble said:

It's right next to the A303, started on Monday I think, if you look on map one on the link you posted the eastern tunnel entrance marker is pretty much bang on where the trenches are being dug

Ah right, I haven't driven past that section since 14th Jan so wouldn't have seen it.

Despite a tunnel having been talked about for longer than I've been alive, and the plans kicked into the grass multiple times, it does feel like they will just push on with the project for better or worse this time.

[trevethin]

I agree the single carriageway sections of the A303 are bad, but we use it as it's worse doing M4 M5. There was a lovely documentary on the telly a while back.  A303 Gateway to the Sun.

Back on topic, as I understand it it's not a good current proposal - I think they need to move the road, not build a tunnel ...

[eFestivals]

2 minutes ago, trevethin said:

I think they need to move the road, not build a tunnel ...

Moving the road would add about 20 miles, because there's shit-loads of archeology around there both to the north and to the south.

A tunnel is the only realistic way to do it, tho perhaps not the current tunnel proposal.

[guypjfreak]

7 hours ago, eFestivals said:

Moving the road would add about 20 miles, because there's shit-loads of archeology around there both to the north and to the south.

A tunnel is the only realistic way to do it, tho perhaps not the current tunnel proposal.

Yea but at least that might and I say might with sarcasm please everyone and it will definitely cost less than a tunnel 

If you kill the A303 at the junction of the B3083 and use that Rd past Shrewton then use the parkway all the way past larkhill past Durrington down the A3028 to rejoin the A303... I know this would fuck up a lot of people but it might be an idea.. 

Night all. G

[geoffboycott]

9 hours ago, guypjfreak said:

Yea but at least that might and I say might with sarcasm please everyone and it will definitely cost less than a tunnel 

If you kill the A303 at the junction of the B3083 and use that Rd past Shrewton then use the parkway all the way past larkhill past Durrington down the A3028 to rejoin the A303... I know this would fuck up a lot of people but it might be an idea.. 

Night all. G

Yeah, I've noticed this has got a lot busier since they closed the road that forked off just before Stonehenge (going Westbound).

Really something does need to be done, I think a longer and better thought out tunnel is probably the best way.  Also dual carriageway the remaining single carriageway would make a huge difference.