Total Pageviews

Translate

Friday 22 July 2022

A303 Dual carriageway? Here's the reason why NOT!

 Welcome to my "traffic light map"....  oops! not supposed to call it that! 


National Highways want it known as....."The Heritage Map".... but I figured the majority of folks who read this blog, wouldn't open the post with that boring title, so I must bow to them in their infinite wisdom and call it by it's proper name "Heritage"!

There are two maps - one red and one green and between them both, in a simple way, they show various "splats" which represent still in place, monument large and small along the route of the present A303.   This would be destroyed in the making of an on-line extra road, and so puts to bed all the hyperbole and comments such as "why can't they just put another road along side the present A303".  "Why can't they just construct a berm to shield Stonehenge from view".  The maps show the adverse and beneficial effect of leaving the road as is, or going under ground - 50 meters underground....i.e. well below the disturbance of said monuments, of which 175 are designated scheduled monuments and still in place.

When you open the piece from National Highways, the maps show very little monument in the area of the dual carriageway heading west from Countess roundabout....this is because of course, all of that would have been discovered in the late '60's when the Amesbury by pass was built in a 90 foot cutting and completed early '70's.   It shows also, there is very little to be found in the area where the western portal would be constructed, should a tunnel be agreed.



https://nationalhighways.co.uk/our-roads/a303-stonehenge/archaeology-and-the-a303/our-heritage-impact-assessment-explained/



So! without a doubt.....a dual is OUT!

No comments: