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Fluid Dynamics wrote:Hasting really has some of the worst connections considering its in the South East. It's rail connection to London was built on the cheap with many of the tunnels single track, and a road that for most of the route south of Pembury resembles a patchwork of country lanes.
Hope you don't mind my correcting you, but the Tonbridge - Hastings line was built as double track throughout and remained so (with the exception of Mountfield Tunnel, which was singled after it collapsed in the 1970s) until the line was electrified in the mid-1980s.
What happened was that the contractors who built the tunnels did indeed build them 'on the cheap', with too-few layers of bricks. After this was discovered, adding the require extra layers made the tunnels too narrow for standard width trains and so specially-built narrow rolling stock (steam and then diesel) was used until the decision was taken to make (most of) the tunnels single line when the Hastings line was electrified in the 80s.
So, while the end result is the same, the tunnels weren't built as single track
Living in Wadhurst for the first 30 years of my life, it's part of the world I am intimately familiar with, although I've not been back for a good 10 years. I miss the area, but not the traffic!
The contract was awarded for the scheme to Balfour Beatty in July and I got held up last night in what appeared to be the beginning of the preparotary tree felling just north of the North Farm Park Roundabout.
Fluid Dynamics wrote:The contract was awarded for the scheme to Balfour Beatty in July and I got held up last night in what appeared to be the beginning of the preparotary tree felling just north of the North Farm Park Roundabout.
The tree-felling and landscaping started about 2 or 3 months ago.
Fluid Dynamics wrote:The contract was awarded for the scheme to Balfour Beatty in July and I got held up last night in what appeared to be the beginning of the preparotary tree felling just north of the North Farm Park Roundabout.
The tree-felling and landscaping started about 2 or 3 months ago.
Hi There, are you sure that wasn't for the North Farm Park Improvement scheme, which is being delivered on behalf of Kent CC? I use the A21 regularly and wasn't aware of these works until last week. A field just after the Tonbridge junction on the south side of the road also now appears to have protection to catch mammals reptiles etc.
A21, Kent
Location North and Southbound between Tonbridge and Pembury
Period 16-Sep-2014 to 31-Mar-2015
Effect Moderate (10 - 30 mins)
Length 2882 metres
Description Major Project - A21 Tonbridge to Pembury Dualling Scheme - Night/Day and 24 hour works, carraigeway closures, narrow lane and speed limits in place
The contract to build the scheme was awarded to Balfour Beatty on 9 July 2014.
Site clearance and advance environmental mitigation work is expected to start in autumn 2014 with the main construction work starting in spring 2015. Construction will take approximately 2 years.
There's been no press release since this one on 11 Jul.
1080p drivers' eye view of the clearance works for anyone who is interested. I have to say it's nice to drive without all the forest around it - it feels much nicer and more open.
What is being used to record that footage - is the camera / whatever mounted near a speaker - there is either some weird judder on the footage, or I need more coffee before viewing videos in the morning
There was a Shell station there, definitely open in 2011 but since then it's been boarded up and generally used as a rubbish tip. Presumably that will be gone with the widening scheme.
echowarning wrote:What is being used to record that footage - is the camera / whatever mounted near a speaker - there is either some weird judder on the footage, or I need more coffee before viewing videos in the morning
My iPhone on a cheap crap windscreen mount.
The shell garage is still there and operating - AFAIK there will be a LAR to serve it
I think the now considerable views will only be short term, the most recent HA scheme leaflet indicates they are replacing 8ha of ancient woodland with 18ha as part of the project. Certainly interesting views around the North Farm Park Junction, the associated KCC schem is progressing well. Will be interested to see the tie-in.
Not on my GSV it isn't. Thishttps://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.16409 ... !2e0?hl=en is the only petrol station, past or present on the section concerned, and it has been functioning continuously for as long as I've known it!
Yes that petrol station has been continuously open as far as I remember it, and it will remain so. I'm not convinced how many will turn off the main road to use it though.
Just a thought though - with GSV increasing the historical records over the years, does anyone know what they will do when roads (such as the existing A21 section) are closed and replaced with something nearby? Will they retain the geographic location references so that you can drive down an old road - or just make the old pics inaccessible? I suspect the former, though I'd be interested to know how they will do it without making it too confusing to the average punter.
Looks like the works proper are now underway. HA signage up on the approaches announcing the scheme will be completed by December 2016, 40 mph signage in place and site accommodation is being craned in.
