A30 Carland Cross Chiverton Cross

[RichardEvans67]

That's very decent progress at Carland, I reckon they will get it done by the end of June. Maybe not everything finished, and probably a reduced limit, but open

Yes nearly there. Although late June is only about 4 weeks away, so that could be tight.

[Gaz909909]

They have said full dual carriageway and full limit from mid to late June, so let it be so!

Blown away by all the work done at Carland, especially the westbound offslip. The old dual carriageway there all but gone.

I think they just might do it.

Chapeau to them.

[RichardEvans67]

They have said full dual carriageway and full limit from mid to late June, so let it be so!

He said he was saying that with caution, as there is still a lot to do at Carland. Well from the looks of it, I recon they may well achieve that, but I think it will be tight.

[Gaz909909]

I think we should do a sweepstake!!

I'm calling Tuesday 18th June
D2
70mph

We all have no idea, so this is fun! When are you guys calling the date, configuration and speed?

[IAN]

I think we should do a sweepstake!!

I'm calling Tuesday 18th June
D2
70mph

We all have no idea, so this is fun! When are you guys calling the date, configuration and speed?

Good idea - My more pessimistic prediction.

Monday 15th July

D2
50mph until September
Temporary road signs and some lay-bys closed.
Weekend and night time closures during the autumn for final finishing.
All work completed and compound at Carland removed by spring 2025

[adam 1972]

Monday 24th June
D2
70 mph

[RichardEvans67]

I think we should do a sweepstake!!

I'm calling Tuesday 18th June
D2
70mph

We all have no idea, so this is fun! When are you guys calling the date, configuration and speed?

I'm not a gambling man, but I suppose there is no harm.
I don't know, but I'm a bit less optimistic, so I'm guesstimating July 1st.

[Sam S]

New full length flyby:

https://youtu.be/HmvzvXsMRIQ?si=rd9dRlvBvZ2yQu0U

[Gaz909909]

Fantastic video! Really interesting and gobsmacked at the progress in the last few weeks. Sign posts (but not yet signs) popping up too.

Slightly concerning... Is the westbound LILO at 6.03 a permanent feature?? I hadn't spotted it before.

[Hdeng16]

Fantastic video! Really interesting and gobsmacked at the progress in the last few weeks. Sign posts (but not yet signs) popping up too.

Slightly concerning... Is the westbound LILO at 6.03 a permanent feature?? I hadn't spotted it before.

No it’s not - so not sure why the white line is broken - it’s either to do with forthcoming traffic management (ie: it’s gonna be a live line and works access for a bit) or maybe a gated access point? The lanes themselves are linked up without connection to the dualled a30

[RichardEvans67]

Slightly concerning... Is the westbound LILO at 6.03 a permanent feature?? I hadn't spotted it before.

Most likely a site access and they might or might not be still using it as that. There is no way they would want to leave that as a permanent feature on a 70mph HQD2.

[RichardEvans67]

No it’s not - so not sure why the white line is broken - it’s either to do with forthcoming traffic management (ie: it’s gonna be a live line and works access for a bit) or maybe a gated access point? The lanes themselves are linked up without connection to the dualled a30

On the plans, (A few yards down the lane from this) it says "Westbound Gated Emergency Access Point"

[multiraider2]

As it's just for fun and we don't really know:-

I would hazard a guess at five weeks away:

Monday 1st July
D2
70mph

[Paul237]

I wouldn't be surprised if it's 30 June, just so they can say they met the "June" target.

Is there any possibility they'd allow westbound traffic access to both carriageways towards the Chiverton end before the full road opens?

[RichardEvans67]

Is there any possibility they'd allow westbound traffic access to both carriageways towards the Chiverton end before the full road opens?

I would guess there is probably nothing in their contract to pay them any more for doing that. I would think their contract just depends upon the date when they open the whole D2.

So I doubt they would bother opening any bits of D2 early. Besides there are probably still jobs at the side of the road. Having the nearside lane closed would probably make these jobs much easier.

[Paul237]

Is there any possibility they'd allow westbound traffic access to both carriageways towards the Chiverton end before the full road opens?

I would guess there is probably nothing in their contract to pay them any more for doing that. I would think their contract just depends upon the date when they open the whole D2.

So I doubt they would bother opening any bits of D2 early. Besides there are probably still jobs at the side of the road. Having the nearside lane closed would probably make these jobs much easier.

That makes sense. Safety concerns would certainly be a good reason not to do it. I just wondered if they'd consider it because then they could say they'd met their target by "partially opening" the new A30 by the end of June.

I've worked with plenty of Project Managers in the past (albeit not in road construction) so I know how many of them think!

[Hdeng16]

Google Earth desktop app aerial imagery along the entire route has now been updated to 11th May 2024

Looking at the imagery, the A30 mainline is completely closed. No guarantee it was exactly the 11th, but I believe that was a closure weekend so may well be accurate.

[RichardEvans67]

Looking at the imagery, the A30 mainline is completely closed. No guarantee it was exactly the 11th, but I believe that was a closure weekend so may well be accurate.

Just looked at the imagery, and interestingly about 600m east of Carland bridge the alignment doesn't quite look right, and there is a bulge of unused road to the north. I think perhaps they haven't done that final part of the tie in yet. I think the final alignment will be slightly further north. There appear to be drains (although I can't tell exactly what they are), that I think will be at the edge of the road when the alignment is finally finished.

[Hdeng16]

Also what's with the extended weird merge at Chivvy, the southbound entry slip - it almost becomes 3 lanes for a stupidly short period before "merge right" arrows appear on the tarmac. The other 3 corners are normal slip roads

[RichardEvans67]

Also what's with the extended weird merge at Chivvy, the southbound entry slip - it almost becomes 3 lanes for a stupidly short period before "merge right" arrows appear on the tarmac. The other 3 corners are normal slip roads

I wonder if perhaps they expect more traffic going west than going east. So perhaps they need to allow the traffic more time to merge. The arrows will probably be to warn drivers that the lane is going to end and so they need to merge.

If anything, I think the EB on slip is a bit short.