Hurry up folks, the cars want a go...
Happy days for fans of tunnels (and those who wish to avoid the A3 bottleneck at Hindhead): the £371 million Hindhead Tunnel has been opened by Transport Secretary Phillip Hammond.
The 1.2-mile tunnel is - we're told - the longest of its type in the UK and forms part of a four-mile bypass of the Surrey village of Hindhead.
It will, reckons the Highways Agency, cut journey times along the A3 by more than 20 minutes during peak periods and removes the only remaining single-carriageway section on the A3 outside London, plugging another 'missing link in the UK's trunk road network.
It has also come in on time and within budget (goodness). Southbound traffic starts using the tunnel today, and northbound traffic will be introduced to the new road later in the week.
But you don't want to know about that (probably. What you want to know about is what your 4/6/8/10/12-cylinder baby (delete as appropriate) is going to sound like bouncing off the tunnel's walls. The answer is surely going to be 'pretty good', provided your car's singing voice is strong enough, of course.
Old A3 will be 'returned to nature'
One word of warning, though - we hear there is a 40mph speed limit in force, guarded by average speed cameras... so it might have to be a first-gear 'noise test'...