Everything about The Stonehenge Road Tunnel totally explained
The
Stonehenge road tunnel was a controversial
tunnel in
Wiltshire,
England proposed by the
Highways Agency to upgrade the
A303 road. It would have moved the A303 into a tunnel under the
Stonehenge World Heritage Site and close the
A344 road. The project was designed to improve the landscape around the monument and to improve safety on the
primary A303 and was part of
proposals to change the site in other ways including moving the visitors centre.
Background
The A303 is one of the main routes from
London to the
South West of England. Sections have been upgraded to
dual carriageway status, though sections of the route remain single carriageway. Traffic flows on the A303 between
Amesbury and
Winterbourne Stoke (the section including Stonehenge) are above the capacity of the road and the Highways Agency expressed concern about safety on this road and the A344. with the A303 passing directly south and the A344 directly to the north with a pedestrian tunnel passing from the Stonehenge visitor centre to the site underneath this road. As part of the development of the proposals, over 50 routes were considered by the Highways Agency.
Proposal
Since 1991 51 proposals have been considered for improving the A303 in the area and to remove it from the Stonehenge site. In 1995 it was proposed to build a tunnel for the A303 underneath the World Heritage Site. A conference agreed on a 2.5
mile (4
km)
bored tunnel, however the
government instead proposed a
cut and cover tunnel, with plans being published in 1999.
In 2002, new plans for a bored tunnel of 1.3 miles (2.1km) were announced by the
Secretary of State for Transport as part of a 7.7 mile (12.5km) plan to upgrade the A303 to dual carriageway status, with the tunnel estimated to cost
£183m. This proposal brought further protests from the National Trust,
English Heritage,
UNESCO,
CPRE, the
Council for British Archaeology and local groups as the tunnel approach cutting would cut in two a prehistoric track way between Stonehenge and a nearby river. These groups are calling for a tunnel at least 2.9 km long, which would, while being sited within the world heritage site, clear most of the known major artefacts, claiming that if the government goes ahead with the 2.1 km tunnel there may never be another chance to remove the road from the site completely.
In 2004 a
public enquiry required under the
Highways Act 1980 was conducted by a planning inspector, Michael Ellison. His enquiry agreed that the government proposals were adequate. The report stated:
Review
On
July 20 2005 the tunnel scheme was withdrawn by the Government, partly due to rising costs of construction, which had doubled to £470 million. The Highways Agency continued to list the project as planned, but gave 2008 as the earliest date for the start of construction. with the aim of choosing an "option in keeping with the special requirements of the location that's affordable, realistic and deliverable."
The review presented five options — the published tunnel scheme, a cut and cover tunnel, a 'partial solution' (involving a roundabout but maintaining the current road), and two overland bypass routes. Some of these plans have been criticised as being damaging to both archaeology and
biodiversity, including the
stone curlew,
barn owls,
bats, and the chalk grassland habitat.Five options were considered including diverting the A303 further away and only closing the A344.The group expected to produced a report in 2006, taking into account the results of public consultation which started in 23 January 2006 and ran until 24 April 2006.
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