Stonehenge - The bored tunnel option

[si404]

Perhaps as one of those
wildcard options that always gets rejected??

Those typically aren't the second-place alternative unless magicians choice is being done.

[jackal]

There has been some press reports about the funding arrangements for both the Stonehenge Tunnel and the Lower Thames Crossing. This article appeared in the New Civil Engineer magazine recently, although it is behind a paywall, I think we can get the idea that there isn't any money! More info however, can be found on this following article; transport-network.co.uk/MPs-call-for-cl ... emes/15695

Isn’t part of the issue that with Brexit dominating Parliamentary proceedings we are still awaiting a new comprehensive spending review to set out Government funding priorities into the next decade. It’s not that the money isn’t necessarily there, but that the settlement hasn’t been agreed?

I assume the Lower Thames Crossing will be Toll funded?

The Lower Thames Crossing is different as it will be Toll funded and indeed is already toll funded, when you consider that the tolls to pay off the QE2 bridge were never stopped once it was paid for

The article I linked to mentioned that a replacement needed to be found for the £1.5bn link roads for the LTC. So I guess that of the £6bn total project, £4.5bn can be funded from tolls, but major elements of the scheme that don't directly raise toll revenue, including the C/D lanes along the A2 and M25, need to find £1.5bn from elsewhere.

[IAN]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-w ... e-47812971

Is this serious or just desperation tactics by protesters? I suppose that if all else fails, the tunnel could be moved 22 metres south!

Ian (M5 Driver)

[jervi]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-w ... e-47812971

Is this serious or just desperation tactics by protesters? I suppose that if all else fails, the tunnel could be moved 22 metres south!

Ian (M5 Driver)

I'm thinking it's one of the last resorts to prevent this tunnel from being constructed and the request in the deed shouldn't really apply to something being constructed underground. But if has to move 25 ish metres to the south it will only delay the construction due to amendments seem to take a while to be approved, but this wouldn't be the first time highway authorities go against orders. Since i first heard about this tunnel plan I have always been confused why people are opposing it, surely it makes the atmosphere around the site nicer, instead of a main primary route running right beside it.

[mikehindsonevans]

Interesting to hear the NIMBY museum people wittering on, in writing, about "restricted covenants".

I always knew them as "RESTRICTIVE covenants".

Who would have thought it? Semi-literate desperate NIMBYs.

Makes you weep.

[Berk]

I don’t think they’re worth the paper they’re written on. Who enforces them??

Unless you pay a solicitor a retainer to do so, absolutely no-one, I imagine.

[Herned]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-w ... e-47812971

Is this serious or just desperation tactics by protesters? I suppose that if all else fails, the tunnel could be moved 22 metres south!

Ian (M5 Driver)

Fairly sure this sort of covenant has very little legal force. Clutching at straws

[Truvelo]

In a few months it will be summer and the single carriageway sections of A303 will once again grind to a halt on sunny weekends. The exhaust fumes from stationary traffic will drift over the stones causing them to discolour and decay. I don't see NIMBYs mentioning this each time they make feeble attempts to get the scheme scrapped.

[Berk]

Not to mention the NO2/CO2 that visitors and staff have to breathe in. At least the shuttle buses are eco-friendly.

[Euan]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-w ... e-47812971

Is this serious or just desperation tactics by protesters? I suppose that if all else fails, the tunnel could be moved 22 metres south!

Ian (M5 Driver)

According to Highways England the covenant only applies to 365 metres on the north side of the monument and only on the surface, so even a tunnel within 365 metres on the north side would not be in breach of the covenant.

[Owain]

In a few months it will be summer and the single carriageway sections of A303 will once again grind to a halt on sunny weekends. The exhaust fumes from stationary traffic will drift over the stones causing them to discolour and decay. I don't see NIMBYs mentioning this each time they make feeble attempts to get the scheme scrapped.

Having driven through there plenty of times, the main cause of congestion appears to be people slowing to a standstill on the S2 section closest to the stones, and attempting to take photographs from their cars. Quite what the photos look like, I have no idea; few phones, if any, will achieve a good quality picture from that distance! It's also quite annoying to be slowed to 2mph by people attempting to take a photo while keeping their car moving in straight line. A police patrol there would collect a fortune in fines.

I would have thought that the tunnel would be welcomed, because it will free Winterbourne Stoke from traffic, ease congestion at the roundabout with the A360, and prevent queuing on the S2 section near the stones and at the end of the current dual carriageway to the east.

Not to mention the NO2/CO2 that visitors and staff have to breathe in. At least the shuttle buses are eco-friendly.

In this respect, a tunnel will also improve the lives of the pigs who live on the other side of the road, and no doubt improve the quality of their Wiltshire ham.

EDIT FOR TYPOS AND TO FIX THE LINK TO THE PIGS!

[Scratchwood]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-w ... e-47812971

Is this serious or just desperation tactics by protesters? I suppose that if all else fails, the tunnel could be moved 22 metres south!

Ian (M5 Driver)

Bizarre to talk about the tunnel scarring the landscape, when surely the current A303 and summer traffic jams are 10 times worse!

[Glenn A]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-w ... e-47812971

Is this serious or just desperation tactics by protesters? I suppose that if all else fails, the tunnel could be moved 22 metres south!

Ian (M5 Driver)

Bizarre to talk about the tunnel scarring the landscape, when surely the current A303 and summer traffic jams are 10 times worse!

Too right and surely a tunnel is a lot more environmentally friendly than a surface by pass. I wonder if some people are just totally anti roads, but there are no other ways to reach Stonehenge.

[Euan]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-w ... e-47812971

Is this serious or just desperation tactics by protesters? I suppose that if all else fails, the tunnel could be moved 22 metres south!

Ian (M5 Driver)

Bizarre to talk about the tunnel scarring the landscape, when surely the current A303 and summer traffic jams are 10 times worse!

Too right and surely a tunnel is a lot more environmentally friendly than a surface by pass. I wonder if some people are just totally anti roads, but there are no other ways to reach Stonehenge.

No matter where it is there will always be opposition of some form against building a new road, but the reasons are quite varied which could be anything from typical NIMBYism to more environmental or nature related concerns about the area. I do generally sympathise with environmental concerns, but having a congested road at surface level is surely going to be far worse in terms of pollution than a road in a tunnel where traffic is moving at a fuel-efficient speed. Refusing to build a new road does not mean that traffic which would benefit from using it isn't already passing through the area.

[SteveA30]

A glimpse of the near or, far future could be had last week, after an accident closed the w/bnd D2 from Countess. Large gaps between lorry led convoys e/bnd allowed this preview of tunnel opening day.

Diversion was A345, B3086 via Larkhill camp and down to Longbarrow past the Visitor Centre. I wonder how many A303ers stopped there when normally they wouldn't turn off for it.

The exit from Amesbury was still open but, I just U turned at a D2 gap, next to it.

[SteveA30]

This was the scene most of the time. Oddly, no-one took advantage of the deserted w/bnd side to overtake.
Whilst at this good vantage point, I took the obligatory Stonehenge pic. Nice view.

[RichardA35]

Diversion was A345, B3086 via Larkhill camp and down to Longbarrow past the Visitor Centre...

That's my normal route if down that way during the summer to avoid the congestion from people looking at the stones.

[Truvelo]

This was the scene most of the time. Oddly, no-one took advantage of the deserted w/bnd side to overtake.

I'm sure there's at least one person on this forum who would have taken advantage

[Bryn666]

The tunnel should have been built about 30 years ago.

The entire A303 is a national embarrassment really.

[Jim606]

The tunnel should have been built about 30 years ago. The entire A303 is a national embarrassment really.

I think they would have built it 30 years ago if they could. The current scheme represents the furthest Highways England & its predecessors have ever got in coming up with something which could actually be built. The examination is well underway and a Secretary of State's final decision is due by April 2020.