Stonehenge - The bored tunnel option

[MotorwayPlannerM21]

I guess the congestion at Stonehenge will damage the environment for many more years before an upgrade, if any, is provided.

[Stevie D]

Why on Earth did they ever route a trunk road along here? Whoever came up with numbers must have foreseen problems when they sent the A30 a different way.

Maybe we should have upgraded that over the years instead.

Originally*, the A30 ran from London to Basingstoke as now, then via Whitchurch to Andover via what is now B3400, then along the route of the current A343 to Lopcombe Corner, and then along the route that we know and love as A30 from there to Exeter and beyond.

What we now now as A303 was made up of:
• Unclassified road from Micheldever Station to Andover
• A344 from Weyhill to Stonehenge
• B3090 from Stonehenge to Ilchester
• A3036 from Ilchester to South Petherton
• A358 from South Petherton to Ilminster
• B3168 from Ilminster to the A30 junction.

Back then, the A30 served the major towns along the way – as well as Andover, Salisbury and Yeovil, it served a number of smaller towns like Shaftesbury, Sherborne, Crewkerne and Chard. The future-A303 served a handful of small towns and larger villages like Ilminster, Wincanton, Mere and Amesbury, but on the whole was a much less important route ... because remember, in the 1930s, people weren't making long-distance journeys the way we do now, and an important road was one that ran to towns and cities rather than past them.

By 1946, the A30 was running through Stockbridge and the A303 had been created although at this point only as a nominal exercise, it doesn't look like there had been any actual upgrade to the road itself. But even without the upgrades, now that cars and other vehicles were getting faster and more people were driving longer distances, it was starting to become more important to have a quicker long-distance route, and the A303 would have been quicker than the A30 by then. But apart from re-routing the A30 between Basingstoke and Salisbury, it wasn't considered helpful to re-number such a long and major section of road, and would have led to confusion among drivers.

Not much happened over the next 20 years, but then by 1970 the A303 had by-passed Andover and Amesbury, and the upgrade to a modern, fast route had begun ... and was much, much easier, cheaper and quicker to do than upgrading the old A30 would have been.

* based on the historic 1930 map

[jackal]

Maybe not scrapped after all:

https://www.newcivilengineer.com/latest ... 3-03-2020/

[Glom]

The saying is to never believe anything until it's been officially denied.

[jackal]

"The A303 - this government's going to get it done" - the Chancellor's budget speech, a few seconds ago. Stonehenge improvement confirmed.

[hoagy_ytfc]

Torygraph reports:

He also says the Government is going to sort issues with the A303, the famously traffic-clogged route from Hampshire to Devon that runs past Stonehenge. No specific details, however.

[Glom]

Torygraph reports:

He also says the Government is going to sort issues with the A303, the famously traffic-clogged route from Hampshire to Devon that runs past Stonehenge. No specific details, however.

That sounds less encouraging. If it was a case of pressing ahead with the HE plan, then good. But if the government has to "sort issues" first, then it'll be quietly dropped before long.

[jackal]

From the Budget 2020:

building a new, high-quality dual carriageway and a two-mile tunnel in the South West to speed up journeys on the A303, and to remove traffic from the iconic setting of Stonehenge

https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... udget-2020

[Jim606]

& from the https://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/news ... ref=twtrec

[M5Lenzar]

Time to get on with it!

[A320Driver]

Great news. The closest the scheme has come to construction since Roads for Prosperity was published in 1989. I really had feared it was yet again to be shelved, I guess construction could start later this year?

[fras]

The only caveat I have is, can all this extra money be spent within the planned timescales ? Don't forget that HS2 is shortly to start off, and due to 30 years of very thin gruel, the construction industry has downsized, and it is surely not going to be easy to upsize it quickly.

[Glom]

They've been doing stuff on Countess Roundabout for ages now. Geological surveys probably.

[Herned]

The only caveat I have is, can all this extra money be spent within the planned timescales ? Don't forget that HS2 is shortly to start off, and due to 30 years of very thin gruel, the construction industry has downsized, and it is surely not going to be easy to upsize it quickly.

This is a very good point, one that has crossed my mind too

[RichardA35]

The only caveat I have is, can all this extra money be spent within the planned timescales ? Don't forget that HS2 is shortly to start off, and due to 30 years of very thin gruel, the construction industry has downsized, and it is surely not going to be easy to upsize it quickly.

This is a very good point, one that has crossed my mind too

Oh Well, we'll just have to pay contractors more.

[mikehindsonevans]

The only caveat I have is, can all this extra money be spent within the planned timescales ? Don't forget that HS2 is shortly to start off, and due to 30 years of very thin gruel, the construction industry has downsized, and it is surely not going to be easy to upsize it quickly.

This is a very good point, one that has crossed my mind too

Oh Well, we'll just have to pay contractors more.

... If they are prepared to work under the double-taxation burden of IR35...

[RichardA35]

This is a very good point, one that has crossed my mind too

Oh Well, we'll just have to pay contractors more.

... If they are prepared to work under the double-taxation burden of IR35...

Well TBH IR35 and the red diesel rebate stopping will have added many millions to this project overnight.

[mikehindsonevans]

Oh Well, we'll just have to pay contractors more.

... If they are prepared to work under the double-taxation burden of IR35...

Well TBH IR35 and the red diesel rebate stopping will have added many millions to this project overnight.

Agreed.

[fras]

... If they are prepared to work under the double-taxation burden of IR35...

Well TBH IR35 and the red diesel rebate stopping will have added many millions to this project overnight.

Agreed.

Except the government will get most of those millions back in the extra tax generated !

[Jim606]

More news...https://www.theconstructionindex.co.uk/ ... next-month

Stonehenge tunnel negotiations begin next month

In a bid to maintain business as usual, Highways England has confirmed the three teams shortlisted to build the £1.7bn Stonehenge tunnel scheme and begins six months of competitive dialogue with them next month. The shortlisted bidders will be asked to submit their final bids in October, with the winner announced sometime in 2021. Whether construction will actually start in 2021, as had been the aspiration, is increasingly uncertain, given the deteriorating economic situation.

The three groups invited to bid are:

BMJV, comprising Bouygues Travaux Publics and J Murphy & Sons;
HDJV, consisting of Hochtief Infrastructure GmbH and Dragados;
MORE JV, comprising FCC Construcción (42.5%), Salini Impregilo (42.5%) and BeMo Tunnelling UK (15%).

The main construction contract for the A303 Amesbury to Berwick Down scheme includes eight miles of new dual carriageway and a tunnel at least two miles long underneath the Stonehenge World Heritage Site in Wiltshire.

Related Information

The main works contract also includes a new bypass to the north of the village of Winterbourne Stoke and the construction of new junctions with the A345 and A360 either side of Stonehenge. The value of the main construction contract has been estimated at £1.25bn out of an overall capital cost of £1.7bn. Highways England project director Derek Parody said: “We’re looking forward to entering into a competitive procurement process with some of the world’s most highly regarded construction companies, subject of course to planning consent being granted. They are all of the highest caliber, with a proven history of delivering complex infrastructure projects, and they are keen to be part of delivering this transformational project."

Following the six-month development consent order examination last year, the Planning Inspectorate has now sent its report and recommendation to the secretary of state for transport and a decision is expected in due course. Salini Impregilo said that bidding for the contract as part of the MORE JV represented its return to the UK after more than 10 years away, confirming its "commercial strategy to focus on countries with low risk profiles", it said. Salini Impregilo previously built the oncology centre at the Churchill Hospital in Oxford and the Butetown-Cardiff Link.

However, as previously reported, the political risk associated with this project was high even before Covid-19 began to hit the economy. A report by the National Audit Office (NAO) in May 2019 cast doubt on the value for money offered by it. Amyas Morse, the head of the NAO, said at the time: “The tunnel at Stonehenge is currently only just value for money by the department’s own business case. Based on experience, project costs tend to grow rather than fall, at least in the early years. It will take a very special effort by the department [for transport] to protect public value up to completion.”