Stonehenge Tunnel

[Keep it stiff]

Back in the news again! It seems to me that every few years the idea goes back on the table, it gets pushed about a bit and end up being kicked down the road (excuse pun) for another day. I hope this will be the case again this time.

The news this week has it reported as either a £1.7bn project or a £2.4bn project, either way it is a shed load of money and that is before you add on the certainty of public sector budget over-run.

English Heritage set out the case as this:

"THE PROBLEM
Tens of thousands of vehicles thunder past Stonehenge on the A303 every day. The heavy traffic and constant noise from the road compromises our enjoyment and understanding of the monument and the road cuts the stones off from much of the surrounding ancient landscape and many prehistoric monuments."

The real problem with the A303 is that it is a combination of single and dual carriageway, the frequent congestion at the stretch that passes Stonehenge is a combination of drivers slowing to admire the stones and the west bound filter to single lane. The latter repeats in the subsequent sections of the 303 where dual lane becomes single. The proposed dual carriageway tunnel is going to do little for west bound congestion, it will just move it down the road to the next pinch point.

I'm all for protecting our national heritage and of course the stones are rightly classified as a world heritage site however the suggestion of dressing up a tunnel scheme to provide cultural and economic benefit is false. I see little/no economic benefit, yes it might enhance the cultural experience but at a cost of billions is that really a priority right now?

[Keep it stiff]

There was an RFC airfield adjacent to Stonehenge a hundred years ago and at the time it was suggested at the time that the stones should be removed as they were a hazard to pilots!

[Keep it stiff]

Cfnteabag said:

The trouble is, anything they plan just seems like a way to stop anybody seeing the Stones without paying the rip off prices to go to the visitor centre. the closed the road that ran alongside, they constantly fight to close the Byway that runs down the other side. Always using the argument its for the protection of the Stones and the site.

That byway has vehicles on it most of the time, I think some people use it for camping. The closure a few years' ago of the A344 from the Stonehenge fork put more traffic on to the A303, from a stones point of view that was more understandable as it was very close. The 30's picture I have copied below I found on the English Heritage website, it shows the ex caretakers cottage and the cafe and lack of traffic!

In the 60's, en-route to our annual family holiday in Devon, my Dad would stop at Stonehenge, there is a picture in a family album of me climbing on the stones, which was perfectly acceptable back then.

Don't get me wrong, I love Stonehenge, I just don't think it is worth spending billions on a tunnel simply to obscure traffic from view, spending billions on upgrading the remaining single carriageway sections of the A303 on the other hand would be money well spent.