[Travel] Not even Stonehenge is safe from the powerful car.

[thedonkeycentrehalf]

Will this tunnel affect the 'ley lines' running through to Chanctonbury Ring? Who knows what's down there under Stonehenge? Older members may remember the Quatermass episode with the buried alien spacecraft blocking construction of a new tube tunnel. (My mum wouldn't let me watch but I did catch up years later) Presumably Prof Q has long gone but hopefully there's a successor...

There was an 90's remake which was about a tunnel under the hills at Southwick but they left the spaceship in place.

 

[Weststander]

The problem is that road is the main route to the west. Single lane. Rubber neckers. If they put in an underground dual carriage way it will fix the bottle neck. Unless I'm hallucinating, on this occasion Schapps has got it right.

This.

The tunnel has been planned by various governments over many years now, but faced huge opposition. Ironically from some heritage experts who are angry that the tunnel itself might harm potential archaeological sites.

This isn't being done purely because of love of the car, the National Trust and Heritage England have demanded this tunnel for decades.

 

[Giraffe]

What I worry about this decision is the 'Domino Effect'.

Very well played.

 

[Billy the Fish]

Good news, that bit of road is always a nightmare

 

[dazzer6666]

Will only be any good if the dual carriageway is extended all the way back to the roundabout at the Countess service station. The real bottleneck is up the hill going west immediately after the roundabout so assume this must be part of the plan......

5 years of roadworks though [emoji33][emoji33]

 

[Weststander]

Will only be any good if the dual carriageway is extended all the way back to the roundabout at the Countess service station. The real bottleneck is up the hill going west immediately after the roundabout so assume this must be part of the plan......

5 years of roadworks though [emoji33][emoji33]

The plan includes a flyover at Countess Roundabout in Amesbury, alongside the Blick Mead settlement, and a bypass for Winterbourne Stoke, as well as the two-mile tunnel.

 

[beorhthelm]

cant understand the objections, put a tunnel underneath and several hundred meters to the south of the hedge sounds like a good idea. i suspect its really a focal point for generic objections for the road. would having the dual carriage way on the surface be preferred? of course not.

 

[Arthur]

And the winner of misleading title of the day goes to......

Great news as I'm sure anyone who has driven that way will agree.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

OK then, a nice thick hedge - with a temporary fence in place until the hedge is big enough.

You're right. What was I thinking, defending Grand Schapps?

Burn him!

 

[Pint of Ale and a Burger]

Yep, and the site is way more than just the relatively small famous bit.

Whilst I think the idea of sorting out a bottleneck and burying the road would improve the site hugely in some regards (less noise & no spoiling of the views with a busy road), the huge construction project required will destroy a huge area of potentially significant archaeology.

Other than re-routing the traffic on a long detour, I don't really see what the solution is (other than finding more ways to reduce road traffic in general of course)

Yes I agree regarding the size of the site.
More and more is being discovered in the surrounding areas which adds even more questions as to what went on there.
As much as I would love to dig underneath and have a look(I often wonder could there be structures underneath like we see in the Orkneys?)
I don't want to see it dug up by roadbuilders who are not archaeologists.).
I'm also wondering from a traffic viewpoint,will that road be needed in 10 years time?.
As the future is in digital tech, people working from home,goods being delivered by drone, autonomous vehicles and even the hyperloop transport system,it seems wrong to spend that amount of money ,at a time when we are skint,to potentially destroy one of our finest archaeological sites,to reduce traffic noise on a road that might not be in use anyway.

 

[studio150]

Prefer the Avebury Stones.

 

[lawros left foot]

The problem is that road is the main route to the west. Single lane. Rubber neckers. If they put in an underground dual carriage way it will fix the bottle neck. Unless I'm hallucinating, on this occasion Schapps has got it right.

There’s bound to be a Government U-turn somewhere down the road,(it’s what they do)


So, you’ll end up back in Southampton.

 

[Sorrel]

I remember back in the 1990s (when I was a tour guide at Stonehenge and other places) being consulted about a new visitors centre and tunnel. One is already there - and a lot better than the crappy tunnel next to the coach park that was there in the 1970s until early 1990s.

Now the tunnel looks like being built too. It has been bitterly opposed by archaeological groups because it is too short and will be going through the heritage landscape rather than underneath it. I'm not quite sure why that message doesn't seem to be getting through - a mile and a bit longer and no-one would object... but the cost of course would be much greater.

Don't expect it to arrive anytime soon because the excavation work to make it will drag on for years.

 

[Billy the Fish]

I wonder how much opposition there would be if they tried to build Stonehenge now!

The bat lobby would be up in arms about the affects on sonar.

 

[Driver 8]

Always amuses me me that roughly about the same time Stone Henge was being built the Minoans were building Knossos with running water and an early form of air conditioning.

 

[Dorset Seagull]

I must have passed it several hundred times on the way to work in the past but not so often these days. The traffic is a nightmare and it can take forever in the jam. However a little tip for those travelling that way. At each end of the carriageway is a roundabout and if you head north on either of them and take the first turn on the next roundabout you manage to bypass the traffic by taking the road parallel to the A303

 

[maffew]

I wonder how much opposition there would be if they tried to build Stonehenge now!

The bat lobby would be up in arms about the affects on sonar.

Haha, nimby cavemen! What about the Nazca lines, definitely an AONB that was probably etched on without planning permission

 

[MJsGhost]

Yes I agree regarding the size of the site.
More and more is being discovered in the surrounding areas which adds even more questions as to what went on there.
As much as I would love to dig underneath and have a look(I often wonder could there be structures underneath like we see in the Orkneys?)
I don't want to see it dug up by roadbuilders who are not archaeologists.).
I'm also wondering from a traffic viewpoint,will that road be needed in 10 years time?.
As the future is in digital tech, people working from home,goods being delivered by drone, autonomous vehicles and even the hyperloop transport system,it seems wrong to spend that amount of money ,at a time when we are skint,to potentially destroy one of our finest archaeological sites,to reduce traffic noise on a road that might not be in use anyway.

^^ All of THIS! ^^

 

[Stat Brother]

I wonder how much opposition there would be if they tried to build Stonehenge now.

I'd hate to think how much it would cost, esp if this time they had to stick a retractable roof on it

 

[beorhthelm]

As the future is in digital tech, people working from home,goods being delivered by drone, autonomous vehicles and even the hyperloop transport system,it seems wrong to spend that amount of money ,at a time when we are skint,to potentially destroy one of our finest archaeological sites,to reduce traffic noise on a road that might not be in use anyway.

where do you think autonomous vehicles or hyperloops would go?