Ilminster Bypass Construction Photos (1980's)

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A303Chris
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Re: Ilminster Bypass Construction Photos (1980's)

Post by A303Chris »

My memory may have gone wrong but was the spate of WS2 and long distance single carriageway roads, such as the North Devon Link Road, the result of TD 9/81 when it came out in the early 80's. I started work in 1987 and was told at the time TD 9/81 with especially WS2, allowed greater flows than previously been accepted in Roads in Rural Areas for SC's. Given the 80's recession, building S2 and WS2 were cheaper and therefore more road schemes could be built at a cheaper cost even though there was no resilience in the network.

However, the DfT and the new HE realised in the early 90's they had made a bit of a cock up so withdrew TD 9/81 and issued TD 9/93 still in use now which advocates DC's. However a 10 year period had gone with roads basically not up to it. The irony is 4 years after TD 9/93 came out the government changed and road building basically knocked on the head.

My late grandparents lived in Chard so regularly drove the Ilminster bypass at both WS2 and S2 + 1. My experience was WS2 worked if drivers sat to the left of the lane and not in the centre of the lane, a car could overtake a car without crossing the middle of the road. While this did not apply for HGV's, to many car drivers sat in the centre of the lane, making overtaking hard.

Great photos by the way, back to the post
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A320Driver
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Re: Ilminster Bypass Construction Photos (1980's)

Post by A320Driver »

Berk wrote:How difficult would it be to adapt the bridges to permit D2 widening?? Would narrow lanes across the bridges work??

Or is that seen as unacceptable these days (cf A74)??

This being said, when the A358 contract progresses to construction, wouldn’t it be feasible to expand that to allow for widening the Ilminster section??
The bridges will require demolition. Been discussed on here before, it’s so short sighted but we do at least now understand the politics behind it.
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Richardf
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Re: Ilminster Bypass Construction Photos (1980's)

Post by Richardf »

This might seem a bit mad to say this but would S3 work instead of WS2? If the big problem with WS2 is lane discipline, having 3 lanes marked rather than 2 would ensure non overtaking drivers stayed on the left, leaving a defined overtaking lane in the middle. Not restricting access to one direction or the other would allow overtaking when conditions permitted rather than having to wait until your side has priority over the middle lane as in S2+1.

The change of policy/rules allowing D2s rather than WS2 as described above has probably had some odd results. Might be a reason why on the A35 most bypasses built in the late 80s to early 90s were S2 or WS2 then suddenly they decided to build the Puddletown bypass as HQDC, which it didn't really need to be. It still feels out of place but if the likes of Dorchester and Bere Regis were D2 it would fit perfectly and there would be calls for more dualling.
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D.J
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Re: Ilminster Bypass Construction Photos (1980's)

Post by D.J »

Truvelo wrote:
D.J wrote:I remember the WS2 layout of this route well, but i can't seem to find any pics of it in that state, if anyone knows of any then it would be neat to see some.
I took a bunch of photos in 2002. I took some further photos in 2004 by which time it had changed to S2+1. I didn't realise it was so long ago now.

Anyway, here's a couple showing some overtaking.
Thanks, i certainly remember just how bad the road was back then, i always used to think the people overtaking along there were completely nuts.
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Re: Ilminster Bypass Construction Photos (1980's)

Post by Herned »

Thanks for sharing the photos. It looks a lot worse than it seemed at the time!
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Re: Ilminster Bypass Construction Photos (1980's)

Post by Richardf »

Original surface fast disappearing, along with traces of the original lane layout. Bypass currently being resurfaced. Looking (and feeling) much better where it's been done. How long this will last for will depend how long it is before the road gets dualled.

Unless the resurfacing is a sign that it's unlikely to happen in the foreseeable future?
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Herned
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Re: Ilminster Bypass Construction Photos (1980's)

Post by Herned »

I would like to think that the Ilminster bypass would be dualled by putting a new carriageway next to the existing one, there aren't really any obvious constraints to doing that anyway
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Re: Ilminster Bypass Construction Photos (1980's)

Post by Richardf »

Herned wrote:I would like to think that the Ilminster bypass would be dualled by putting a new carriageway next to the existing one, there aren't really any obvious constraints to doing that anyway
Agreed, that would probably be the simplest way. Traffic management during upgrade works would be easier that way probably. With the bridges you could even just build new ones alongside for the second carriageway without touching the current ones, just have a wide central reserve to separate them.

Pros and cons with both methods. Given the good modern alignment of the road, symmetric widening (adding lanes both sides) would also be straightforward to do. Would probably come down to cost in the end.
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Re: Ilminster Bypass Construction Photos (1980's)

Post by Rick »

JonB2028 wrote: Sat Apr 14, 2018 19:36
Richardf wrote:Can anyone remind us why it was built this way? Was it just cost? Were there any plans for a D2 instead abd how close dI'd any of them get to being built? Was the current route the only one considered?
The story I heard from someone who had worked for the consultant (MRM Partnership), was that it had been envisaged as a dual carriageway but there was local opposition, a "Campaign for a smaller bypass" or something, so they went back and looked at it and came up with WS2 - which based on the design traffic volumes at the time, no doubt worked and saved a few bob (though not as much as you might think, I expect). The horizontal alignment of much of the route, some of the large radius sweeping bends, rather suggest to me an alignment for a dual carriageway. If you were designing for a single carriageway the recommended practise in TD9 is straights interspersed with relatively tight bends to give clear overtaking and non-overtaking section - look at the A358 Ashill bypass for a better expample of single carriageway horizontal alignment design. (Pity it's too busy to allow any overtaking!)
I worked on this bypass from day one .
Before the site offices were put up I was assisting the land surveyor to plot the centre line . The original Datums were put in some 20 years before so finding them along the length was difficult.
From what I recall the project was challenging for BB with a very if not almost impossible job to build for the price . In those days major local landowners did effect the final construction with friends in high places.
There was also problems with some sections of the bypass being unstable and several large land slips which resulted in a lot of day works and the cost escalating
But an interesting project with lots of memories
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Re: Ilminster Bypass Construction Photos (1980's)

Post by SteveA30 »

but there was local opposition, a "Campaign for a smaller bypass" or something, so they went back and looked at it and came up with WS2 - which based on the design traffic volumes at the time, no doubt worked and saved a few bob (though
So the locals wanted a smaller bypass eh? Well, be careful what you wish for........
From observation, the most often diverted stretch of A road, only A5/M1 around Towcester coming close. Not that I mind of course.
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wrinkly
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Re: Ilminster Bypass Construction Photos (1980's)

Post by wrinkly »

The real reason why it wasn't built as dual is as in A303Chris's post at the top of this page. See A66 Darlington southern bypass etc.
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Re: Ilminster Bypass Construction Photos (1980's)

Post by Houseparty »

A320Driver wrote: Mon Apr 16, 2018 16:04
Berk wrote:How difficult would it be to adapt the bridges to permit D2 widening?? Would narrow lanes across the bridges work??

Or is that seen as unacceptable these days (cf A74)??

This being said, when the A358 contract progresses to construction, wouldn’t it be feasible to expand that to allow for widening the Ilminster section??
The bridges will require demolition. Been discussed on here before, it’s so short sighted but we do at least now understand the politics behind it.
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