A47 Corridor improvement programme

[skiddaw05]

I expect the bridge deck wouldn't have been designed to have traffic loading right at the edges. Hence me querying my own thoughts

[KeithW]

Sorry if this sounds a stupid question, but why can't a lightweight footbridge construction just be bolted to the side of the existing bridge with both of the existing footways then converted into a third traffic lane for queueing?

The assumed loads for foot traffic are lower than for motor traffic and adding a new bolted in footbridge would add an asymmetric load which is rarely a good idea. Ideally what we should be doing is building a second bridge as part of a scheme to upgrade it to D2.

[doebag]

Sorry if this sounds a stupid question, but why can't a lightweight footbridge construction just be bolted to the side of the existing bridge with both of the existing footways then converted into a third traffic lane for queueing?

The assumed loads for foot traffic are lower than for motor traffic and adding a new bolted in footbridge would add an asymmetric load which is rarely a good idea. Ideally what we should be doing is building a second bridge as part of a scheme to upgrade it to D2.

Given that the A47 Guyhirn to Wisbech is on a causeway/embankment, would a dualling actually be on-line.?

[ais523]

The preferred route announcement for Guyhirn is interesting. The consultation report makes note of various concerns about NMUs, but it's not obvious what they plan to do about it. Interestingly, although the roundabout design still makes no sense, its shape has been changed in such a way that it can be fixed using paint (rather than needing new tarmac), so perhaps HE are hedging their bets as to how the roundabout functions.

[KeithW]

Given that the A47 Guyhirn to Wisbech is on a causeway/embankment, would a dualling actually be on-line.?

Either widening it or building a second causeway alongside hardly seem to insurmountable problems.

[Osthagen]

Given that the A47 Guyhirn to Wisbech is on a causeway/embankment, would a dualling actually be on-line.?

I'd imagine that it would, at least for the most part, be an on-line dualling.

[c2R]

I doubt it - the current road on the embankment is subject to subsidence, and twists and turns with the river. Another example of this is on the A10 north of Ely, where improvements have been off line, e.g. here; old road with new A10 lower to the right

An off line route would be fairly inexpensive given the cost of the land here, as well as not disrupting existing traffic during the construction phase. I would suspect it would be on an entirely new alignment cutting the corner off, with a new Nene bridge nearer to Wisbech.

[tompatt]

What looks to be a fairly comprehensive package of improvements looks set to start in 2020.

http://www.constructionenquirer.com/201 ... 020-start/

[Berk]

I've always imagined this is the way dualling east of Thorney would go. You'll need to provide an LAR, and the existing road is already purpose-built for that. Why go to the trouble of providing an expensive new parallel route??

Besides, the existing route is pretty poor quality, so doubtful if it can be upgraded cheaply.

[roadtester]

Yesterday I had a little drive out to Spalding and the A47 for the entire stretch between Guyhirn and the Thorney bypass was completely jammed and near-stationary east-bound (I was heading in the other direction, which was still flowing OK - this was at about 3.30 in the afternoon).

This appeared to be caused by the sheer weight of traffic rather than any incident.

I first moved to East Anglia in 1998 and it's very noticeable how lots of not particularly good roads in the region were entirely up to the job back then but are now increasingly having their inadequacies exposed as traffic levels rise, presumably because of economic/population growth.

[doebag]

Yesterday I had a little drive out to Spalding and the A47 for the entire stretch between Guyhirn and the Thorney bypass was completely jammed and near-stationary east-bound (I was heading in the other direction, which was still flowing OK - this was at about 3.30 in the afternoon).
.

What a difference two hours makes. At 1.00PM the e/b A47 to Guyhirn was free flowing, but w/b from Wisbech was stationary for about a mile up to the roundabout. Again no accident, just weight of traffic.

[wrinkly]

Press release:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/time ... provements

Details of when six major improvements will be made to the A47 in East Anglia have been announced today (Thursday 19 October).

Highways England will dual three parts of the 115 mile stretch of the A47 between Peterborough and Great Yarmouth, and improve several junctions and roundabouts, with work starting as early as 2018. Work on the first of the improvements – a junction upgrade at Great Yarmouth will now start next year, up to 18 months sooner than expected.

Preferred routes for each of the A47 upgrades were announced in August following public consultations earlier in the year. Until now, the date given for all of the schemes was between 2020 and 2021; today’s timetable spaces them out more evenly to ensure that there will not be too many sets of roadworks happening at the same time.

The details are in Highways England’s supplementary delivery plan, which has been published today and includes an update on how Highways England is delivering the Government’s £15bn road investment across the country, which includes a £1.5 billion project already underway to create a new 21-mile A14 link road between Cambridge and Huntingdon.

There's a good deal more at the link.

[jackal]

The long and the short of it is that most of the A47 schemes have been delayed to 2020-21 - that is A47 North Tuddenham to Easton, A47 Blofield to North Burlingham, A47/A11 Thickthorn junction, Guyhirn junction, A47 Wansford to Sutton. Only A47 Acle Straight and A47/A12 Junction Improvements remain in RIS1.

[jackal]

The Eastern Daily Press report that letters have been sent out with two revised local access options for Thickthorn:





This is to address rat running concerns with the previously consulted option:

[jackal]

There are also some 22 rejected options sketched in the Non-Technical Summary Report. Be grateful that we seem to be ending up with a proper freeflow solution. At one stage these five were the remaining options:

Quite the rogue's gallery. The option from the consultation resulted from a value management exercise with option 22, i.e. freeflow was introduced as a last resort when the roundabout fest proved too expensive!

Perhaps the most 'interesting' design is the 'modified cloverleaf with A11 online underpass':

[bart]

Making piecemeal improvements to the A47 between the A1 and Kings Lynn isn't going to help. For traffic travelling between Norwich/Yarmouth/Lynn and places north of Newark, there's a choice between the A17 and A47. Google maps suggests there's not much to choose between the two -- the A47 route is longer but much of it is D2 so tractors and lorries are less of an issue. Slight improvements to the A47 route (such as Guyhirn and dualling the section between the A1 and Peterborough) will swing the balance towards the A47 and could significantly increase the traffic volume, making things worse in the S2 bottlenecks.

[Fluid Dynamics]

The preferred option in combination with Option 20 would have been the ideal solution.

[Berk]

Making piecemeal improvements to the A47 between the A1 and Kings Lynn isn't going to help. For traffic travelling between Norwich/Yarmouth/Lynn and places north of Newark, there's a choice between the A17 and A47. Google maps suggests there's not much to choose between the two -- the A47 route is longer but much of it is D2 so tractors and lorries are less of an issue. Slight improvements to the A47 route (such as Guyhirn and dualling the section between the A1 and Peterborough) will swing the balance towards the A47 and could significantly increase the traffic volume, making things worse in the S2 bottlenecks.

What we need is a new-build offline D2 between Eye and Thorney, and again from east of Thorney to the Wisbech bypass.

I would suggest continuing the D2 from Eye Green along the former railway line. And again from Thorney, but breaking away from the current alignment - so it cuts the corner at Guyhirn, and along a new, purpose-built D2 embankment to South Brink.

Plus all the other previously announced improvements. The existing road can remain as the LAR. Guyhirn roundabout would still need improving even for that.

[jackal]

The preferred option in combination with Option 20 would have been the ideal solution.

It's hard to see due to the quality of the drawing but I think option 20 has a hamburger at the smaller roundabout rather than grade separation. Option 3 adds grade separation there:

[Berk]

20 looks grade-separated to me.