Lake Lothing Third Crossing

[jackal]

This substantial local authority scheme seems to have slipped under the radar. The proposal is for a new lifting bridge in Lowestoft located between the existing Bascule Bridge and Mutford Lock Bridge.

The scheme is well advanced, having already been submitted to the Planning Inspectorate. Cost is given as £91.73m, with the DfT contributing £73m. It is hoped construction will start in 2019/20, and it will take 2-3 years.

The crossing has substantial approach viaducts crossing roads and the railway, plugging into the road network to the south at the A12 Tom Crisp Way/B1531 Waveney Drive and to the north at Peto Way/Denmark Road. It is generally to S2 standard with wide pavements, though there's some local D2 between roundabouts.

The general arrangement can be found here:

https://infrastructure.planninginspecto ... of%202.pdf
https://infrastructure.planninginspecto ... of%202.pdf

Here's the flythrough from the 2017 consultation:



Suffolk CC and the Planning Inspectorate webpages:

https://www.suffolk.gov.uk/roads-and-tr ... -crossing/
https://infrastructure.planninginspecto ... -crossing/

[AtoB]

At first glance I took this quite substantial bridge plan in Suffolk to be a crossing of Harwich Harbour, between Harwich and Felixstowe (and their docks) - a plan that would seem to have direct benefits for Felixstowe docks road traffic going south towards SE England, and substantial other benefits. Does anyone know if such a plan exists?

[Euan]

It looks like there will be an additional lane on the north side of Lake Lothing which will allow west-east traffic to miss the new roundabout at the start of the bridge.

[Herned]

At first glance I took this quite substantial bridge plan in Suffolk to be a crossing of Harwich Harbour, between Harwich and Felixstowe (and their docks) - a plan that would seem to have direct benefits for Felixstowe docks road traffic going south towards SE England, and substantial other benefits. Does anyone know if such a plan exists?

I doubt it, it would need to be enormous. I imagine if any crossing were ever proposed a tunnel would be more likely, to avoid any piers in the channel. It would then need to be dug deep enough to allow for any conceivable increase in channel depth, adding more expense.

[Altnabreac]

At first glance I took this quite substantial bridge plan in Suffolk to be a crossing of Harwich Harbour, between Harwich and Felixstowe (and their docks) - a plan that would seem to have direct benefits for Felixstowe docks road traffic going south towards SE England, and substantial other benefits. Does anyone know if such a plan exists?

I doubt it, it would need to be enormous. I imagine if any crossing were ever proposed a tunnel would be more likely, to avoid any piers in the channel. It would then need to be dug deep enough to allow for any conceivable increase in channel depth, adding more expense.

I doubt it as well but if you were looking at doing a scheme surely the best way would be two separate crossings of Stour and Orwell via Shotley. You'd then only need something in the region of 40m clearance on each bridge.

[lefthandedspanner]

At first glance I took this quite substantial bridge plan in Suffolk to be a crossing of Harwich Harbour, between Harwich and Felixstowe (and their docks) - a plan that would seem to have direct benefits for Felixstowe docks road traffic going south towards SE England, and substantial other benefits. Does anyone know if such a plan exists?

I doubt it, it would need to be enormous. I imagine if any crossing were ever proposed a tunnel would be more likely, to avoid any piers in the channel. It would then need to be dug deep enough to allow for any conceivable increase in channel depth, adding more expense.

That would put it somewhere near the scale of the Mersey tunnels. Given that shipping traffic either uses one port or the other, and the ports are linked by high-quality primary S2 and D2 roads, it'd be a huge investment for very little return.

[jackal]

Secretary of State's letter granting planning consent:

https://infrastructure.planninginspecto ... easons.pdf

Made order:

https://infrastructure.planninginspecto ... %20DCO.pdf

Examining authority's report:

https://infrastructure.planninginspecto ... %20DfT.pdf

[skiddaw05]

This will set the old 'Yartoft' rivalries going. I wonder who'll get there first

[MattyH]

Well it's taken us 100 odd years to get to this stage. Really hoping it gets built quickly as we could really use taking a lot of the traffic away from the town centre. They built the Southern relief road which was good, a few years ago we finally got the northern relief road finished after about 15 years of having to go through a housing estate. Now all that is missing is this bridge!

[c2R]

Legislation.org.uk http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020 ... tents/made

[Mapper89062]

The bridge construction is now well underway and expected to open by the end of 2023.

Naturally I was most interested in what they plan to do with the road numbering, and this document shows the plan:

https://infrastructure.planninginspecto ... 20Plan.pdf

The A12 will be extended over the new bridge, Peto Way and the A1117 northern relief road to join the A47 at Corton, with the A146 extended through Oulton Broad over the Mutford Lock Bridge to reach Peto Way. The A1117 is relegated to a local road to access Oulton Broad from the south.

However, it seems the A12 between the Bascule Bridge and the B1531 will stay as A12, so you'll have a roundabout with all three classified arms numbered A12 and a TOTSO for through traffic, with one of the A12s spontaneously turning into A47 a few hundred metres away. I assume NH wouldn't like a tiny bit of non-trunk A47 at the end of the trunk road, but that will surely be confusing. The A146 and A1144 will also meet end-on on the A12.

A tidier bit of numbering might have been to reroute the A146 along the A1145 (surely nearly everyone coming into Lowestoft along the A146 is heading for the town rather than wanting to bypass it?), extending the A1144 along the A146/A1117 to Carlton Colville, then making the A12 spur A146.

[Chris5156]

I assume NH wouldn't like a tiny bit of non-trunk A47 at the end of the trunk road, but that will surely be confusing. The A146 and A1144 will also meet end-on on the A12.

The attitude of NH towards the A12 and A47 in this part of the world defies all logic. They were so insistent, a few years ago, that the trunk road should be all A47 that they diverted it over the former A12 down to Lowestoft - but it’s a decision made entirely for the convenience of themselves, and which makes no sense for navigation purposes.

[Chris56000]

The A47 is one of the few two–digit Trunk Roads that doesn't have either a junction on the motorway network or meet end–on to a spur from one – it would have met the A1(M) at Wansford if the A1(M) Peterborough–Stamford scheme hadn't been canned in the second half of the 1990s!

Chris Williams

[roadphotos]

Lake Lothing is to close for 3 weeks from the 22nd of January to allow the Bascule span of the new Gull Wing Bridge to be installed, it's coming from the Netherlands and will be passing under the existing bridge.

[Chris56000]

A green line of "Projected Road" dashes is now snaking round Hockering, Honingham and Easton along the A47 on the OS 1.250k Colour Raster Map online now, but nothing marked yet for the North Burlingham scheme tho!

Chris Williams

[Steven]

A green line of "Projected Road" dashes is now snaking round Hockering, Honingham and Easton along the A47 on the OS 1.250k Colour Raster Map online now

That's not actually true unfortunately.

A look through the archived versions on SABRE Maps tells the story. The 2021 version does, as does the 2022 revision, but it is not marked on the 2023 revision.

[Chris56000]

My OS Maps 1 : 250k that I get on the OS Maps Online app is definitely the 2022 revision!

Chris Williams

[AAndy]

A thread for the new Lowestoft bridge which will be designated the A12 when completed.

[AAndy]

It is A WOW project https://gullwingbridge.co.uk/