Is this seriously an 'issue' ?! The road, at great cost, will be buried underground, but the portals will look too 'urban' ?! FFS!Norfolktolancashire wrote: ↑Tue Sep 26, 2023 20:15 The existing tunnel proposal has the issue of the urban look of the portals.
Both have steep sided hard surfaced sides with a look of a multi storey car park entrance, along with street lighting, in the middle of grasslands in the middle of a rural area! There can be no mitigation in the idea of planting woodlands to soften the portals as per the A3 Hindhead tunnel, so I do not know what else can be done to reduce this look. It will be an issue even if the tunnel is extended.
I recently visited Liverpool for the first time in many years. My visit of course included not only 'The Cavern' but also strolling in the docks area, which is being re-furbished, re-populated, etc. Old buildings are being re-purposed, architecturally meritorious new buildings being added - in my opinion, imaginatively and sensitively. But it has caused the area to lose its WHS status! No matter - plenty of people around. My general impression whilst there was that everyone approved. I believe the fundamental reason for that is that reasonable people don't mind the juxtaposition of old and new, if it's done properly. In fact, in most real life settings, such juxtaposition is an inevitable and normal part of life.
This is analogous to ancient Stonehenge being next to modern road and vehicles, with Stonehenge's WHS status also under threat. I don't see why the presence and visibility of the A303 (in its current form, a dualled form, or a buried form) is a problem. Although environmentalists are making a fuss, and apparently we Sabristi too (see the quoted post), I seriously doubt whether it occurs to ordinary reasonable visitors that the road is a problem (other than its congestion, of course).
Finally, multi-billion pounds is too much to solve this hardly-existent problem. If the cash-strapped goverment scraps the project, I will not be surprised or displeased.
BTW, I'm not a Philistine, I'm not blind, I've visited the site via the visitor centre 3 times in 3 decades, and nearby archeological sites, I enthusiastically follow the archeological investigations, and have driven the A303 end-to-end (though I prefer M4/M5).