A303 Sparkford to Ilchester

[multiraider2]

"...despite very challenging weather through July and August". It rained a bit. I had a two week holiday in Cornwall in mid August and I put my coat on twice in the stay and the first of those was a light drizzle that stopped.

[Debaser]

"...despite very challenging weather through July and August". It rained a bit. I had a two week holiday in Cornwall in mid August and I put my coat on twice in the stay and the first of those was a light drizzle that stopped.

Might have got the dates mixed up?

[trickstat]

"...despite very challenging weather through July and August". It rained a bit. I had a two week holiday in Cornwall in mid August and I put my coat on twice in the stay and the first of those was a light drizzle that stopped.

This section of road is about 80 miles from the Cornish border.

[multiraider2]

"...despite very challenging weather through July and August". It rained a bit. I had a two week holiday in Cornwall in mid August and I put my coat on twice in the stay and the first of those was a light drizzle that stopped.

This section of road is about 80 miles from the Cornish border.

Yes indeed, but its not Siberia or Dhaka in distance or climate. Accepting the weather wasn't the best this summer, the point was; it's just an excuse really.

[Herned]

Yes indeed, but its not Siberia or Dhaka in distance or climate. Accepting the weather wasn't the best this summer, the point was; it's just an excuse really.

I agree, whilst Somerset did get over twice the average rainfall in July, they were very obviously way behind schedule before that

[Keiji]

Given how often we get inclement weather conditions, you'd think projects would actually be planned to take account of it, wouldn't you?

[Chris5156]

"...despite very challenging weather through July and August". It rained a bit. I had a two week holiday in Cornwall in mid August and I put my coat on twice in the stay and the first of those was a light drizzle that stopped.

This section of road is about 80 miles from the Cornish border.

Yes indeed, but its not Siberia or Dhaka in distance or climate. Accepting the weather wasn't the best this summer, the point was; it's just an excuse really.

If they were already behind then fair enough, but a project this big will have some rough assumptions built into its project plan - namely that winter will be cold and wet, and summer will be warmer and drier. You then plan to do things requiring dry weather over the summer.

Cornwall must have had a lucky break - in Hampshire, July and August were a washout, with day after day of pouring rain. If you have large scale earthmoving, concrete pouring or tarmac laying to do, you would expect to be able to get a certain amount done in July and August, and those conditions will stop it happening.

[multiraider2]

I wonder what spanner yesterday's weather will have put further in the works. Biggest thunderstorm of the summer in SE London just after midnight. I think the Met Office Rainfall Radar suggests they may may missed the worst of that, but that Somerset got a deluge earlier in the day.

[DavidBrown]

Sounds like a very similar story to the widening on the A361 NDLR, massively behind schedule even before the wet summer, which whilst I think the constant rain in July and August will have no doubt delayed things even more, will just prove to be a convenient excuse to hide behind why whey were so far behind in the fist place. The A361 works are officially only 3 months behind schedule, but given the amount of work to do and the length of time some of the restrictions have been in place, in reality 12 months at the very least.

The weather yesterday from the looks of it was something else. We missed the very worst of it where I am, just a relatively short spell of heavy rain. Minehead and Exeter got it very bad from what I've seen, but the A303 works are a fair bit further east, so might have got away with anything too bad.

[Vierwielen]

Given how often we get inclement weather conditions, you'd think projects would actually be planned to take account of it, wouldn't you?

Easier said than done! If past rainfall figures suggested that it was 90% certain that you would get between 48 and 52 wet days per 100 days, it would be a lot easier to plan than if statistics showed that you it was 90% certain that you would get between 30 and 70 wet days per 100 days.

[solocle]

Sounds like a very similar story to the widening on the A361 NDLR, massively behind schedule even before the wet summer, which whilst I think the constant rain in July and August will have no doubt delayed things even more, will just prove to be a convenient excuse to hide behind why whey were so far behind in the fist place. The A361 works are officially only 3 months behind schedule, but given the amount of work to do and the length of time some of the restrictions have been in place, in reality 12 months at the very least.

The weather yesterday from the looks of it was something else. We missed the very worst of it where I am, just a relatively short spell of heavy rain. Minehead and Exeter got it very bad from what I've seen, but the A303 works are a fair bit further east, so might have got away with anything too bad.

It was a Florida-style deluge in Poole

[Gaz909909]

Delayed

https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/som ... ly-8823578

[ikcdab]

I drive along here frequently. On the last few trips i have seen no activity at all - maybe its happening away from the current road. No surprise that its slipped a whole year.
Does the contractor bear the cost of the delay?

[Nelsontoyota]

I went through the works area this week and there was a huge amount of standing water on the southern side of the road. I believe that the the road was closed due to flooding for many hours yesterday.

[multiraider2]

BBC reporting with pictures that the A303 is flooded at Ilchester. Despite my earlier comment about a "bit of rain" this current weather can only exacerbate construction delays.

[RichardEvans67]

BBC reporting with pictures that the A303 is flooded at Ilchester. Despite my earlier comment about a "bit of rain" this current weather can only exacerbate construction delays.

Is the 1st picture a new attenuation pond .

[SteveA30]

It must be a mudbath there now, even the caterpillar machines would be sinking. No chance of a summer opening, which means another summer of rat running through Sparkford w/bnd, which has been a feature of the last few years, to avoid the rbt queues.

[MikeL]

Per National Highways:

"Later this month, we’ll be reaching the next milestone on the A303 Sparkford to Ilchester scheme as we open up a new section of the eastbound carriageway.

On Saturday, 20 January 2024, people travelling east and westbound on the A303 between just east of Podimore roundabout and Steart Hill, will be using the new eastbound carriageway of the A303. The traffic switch is to allow National Highways to carry out the next stage of essential work. This will be after a full closure of the A303 between the Podimore and Sparkford roundabouts from 9pm on Friday 19 January to 6am on Saturday 20 January."

See link for more details:

https://nationalhighways.co.uk/our-road ... ilchester/

[SteveM]

Did this happen on schedule? I can't visualise what the change was exactly, it seemed as though the A303 live traffic was being routed through the mid-way junction, or is it as far as the tie-in where the new and old A303 cross?

[Herned]

From the terrible map they posted, it looks like they opened the eastbound carriageway all the way to the crossover point, with the local access now via the new junction. I haven't actually been there to see it though