A47 Corridor improvement programme

[doebag]

Looks like North Tuddenham to Easton is starting. Minor back road closures and fencing/marking out happening.

Same thing at Burlingham by the sound of it

The B1140 junction with the A47 is now closed. Lots of cones marking out areas and a compound in the middle of a field.

[Norfolktolancashire]

Looks like preparatory work is beginning on the Blofield stretch with some trees felled.

Some images on the attached article from the EDP site.

https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/23795521.a ... -yarmouth/

[Fluid Dynamics]

Looks like preparatory work is beginning on the Blofield stretch with some trees felled.

Some images on the attached article from the EDP site.

https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/23795521.a ... -yarmouth/

It may be my misunderstanding, but reading the article it appears, despite the quoted limitations, that National Highways have taken a general view that works can proceed based on the DCO. It may be the case now that considering the outcomes from the various previous appeals that have been on the same/similar grounds the perceived risk of proceeding is low. I have in the past in other areas seen Government departments allow works to proceed at risk of appeal. Having put signs up stating works for 2 years this does seem to suggest they are now looking to proceed.

[jackal]

Legally of course they can do anything in line with the DCO that they have. They could build bridges if they wanted.

But as I read it, they are doing preparatory work but have taken the sensible step of informing drivers that they expect works to continue for 2 years.

[doebag]

Just seen that work between Wansford and Sutton is to commence late autumn of this year.

In addition to the benefits to the motorist it’s good to see the cyclist is accommodated well in the plans as currently it is difficult to cycle safely from Wansford to Ailsworth/Castor.

I avoid cycling on the A47 here as it is dangerous so have to use bridleways near Sacrewell Farm. Still involves crossing fast moving traffic at the Sacrewell Farm junction.

The project links up the existing cycle route under the A1 at Wansford to Ailsworth/Castor with an underpass to get to Sutton Heath Road and Langley Bush Road. Excellent

Went through here as a passenger today so managed to keep an eye out. Basic coning out of the route now, and what looked like a couple of compounds or similar now evident.

[A1OZZ]

Yes, I drove that way the other day and saw cones and works.

The footpaths and bridleways are temporarily closing but I can bike to Stibbington from Wansford, follow the old A1 to NVR and along the rather bumpy path to Water Newton. As long as the Nene isn’t in flood I can get to A/C this way.

I went to Norwich from Peterborough on the Excel bus, £2 single fair each way. Long winded but it was interesting travel along the corridor seeing the mishmash of past upgrade projects. Naturally the bus turned off to visit the villages on the bypassed sections. I think I saw markings and cones out at North Tuddenham and Easton but it was pretty wet and miserable to see clearly.

[Norfolktolancashire]

Looks like the site works are being constructed at the west end of the proposed section of the A47 D2 next to Hockering.

https://www.google.com/maps/@52.6779105 ... ?entry=ttu

[roadtester]

A47 objector Andrew Boswell has lost in the Court of Appeal but is talking about trying to go to the Supreme Court...

https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/24137063.a ... al-battle/

[darkcape]

The requirements to go to the Supreme Court are stricter so the general feeling is it won't happen & this will be the end of it

[roadtester]

The requirements to go to the Supreme Court are stricter so the general feeling is it won't happen & this will be the end of it

Certainly the judges were pretty dismissive today!

[jackal]

From the judgment of the gloriously-named Sir Launcelot Henderson:

51. Against this background, there is in my judgment an air of complete unreality to the
complaint that the Secretary of State was somehow at fault in not having conducted a
separate and wider assessment of cumulative emissions from each Scheme (as
disclosed in the data and tables contained in the environmental statements), in
addition to the ARN-based exercise for each Scheme which I have already described.
There is no logical basis upon which any such wider exercise could have been
founded, and the inevitably arbitrary choice of the other sources of carbon emissions
to be considered would only have given a spurious impression of precision to the
resulting assessment. Hence, as the Judge in my opinion rightly recognised at [81],
there is “a logical coherence to the Secretary of State’s decision not to undertake a
comparison of combined emissions against the national target”. Indeed, as the Judge
also noted (ibid), the IEMA Guidance expressly warns against the approach proposed
by Dr Boswell, precisely because “Effects of GHG emission from specific
cumulative projects … in general should not be individually assessed as there is no
basis for selecting any particular … cumulative project that has GHG emission for
assessment over any other”.

Full judgment: https://assets.caselaw.nationalarchives ... 24_145.pdf

[Bryn666]

The requirements to go to the Supreme Court are stricter so the general feeling is it won't happen & this will be the end of it

Whilst I am a firm advocate of highway engineers doing sensible jobs and not tearing up the countryside because brrrmm brrrmm go fast, frivolous law suits based on general hatred of road schemes is not the way to get people to support a cause.

[jackal]

Some photos of preparatory works as well as less than complimentary comments about Dr Boswell: https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/24143692.p ... urlingham/

[Bryn666]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c89n98dwj90o.amp

More A47 reports.