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Stonehenge decision is a blessing in disguise
I SEE the powers that be have apparently scrapped plans for the expensive and impractical Stonehenge tunnel, which would not be either visitor or resident friendly.
I lived for approximately 20 years on the southern edge of the Larkhill Garrison.
The sensible solution, if traffic must be removed from Stonehenge, is a wide looped
surface road to the south, where nobody lives, starting at the
western end of the dual carriage way off the Amesbury bypass.
Traffic would be hidden, by
distance, ground contours and
cuttings. It would rejoin the A303 a couple of miles past Stonehenge.
Such a route would pass near residential housing and close to Larkhill sewage works.
The visitor centre and car park area, where there are a few
cottages, which many years ago were occupied by the Stonehenge wardens, would be on the northern side of the dual carriageway where the southern loop branches off.
Both layouts are on the high ground, back from the hill that leads down to Stonehenge.
Visitor vehicles could travel down to the stones via the existing narrowed A303 and then the A360.
There are two ancient barrows within walking distance of this
visitor centre.
The surface road would avoid problems experienced by some of the southern European tunnels caused by accidents, followed by fire, which make it difficult for
rescue vehicles to reach due to a quick build-up of traffic at busy times.
At such incidents the logical diversionary route would be through the residential area of Totterdown, Amesbury and through the centre of Larkhill Garrison to eventually rejoin the A303.
W ROBINSON, Westbury
1:02pm Thursday 20th December 2007
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CommentPosted by: Mike Pitts, Marlborough on 4:12pm Thu 20 Dec 07
We all find it tempting to imagine that we can solve the Stonehenge and A303 road problems on our own, when two decades and a quoted £23m in research spending by government (to which more can be added by other parties) have failed. The fact is that even as it scrapped the approved project, the government recognised it was the only acceptable complete solution. Every conceivable road route and visitor centre option has been examined (you get that for £23m). Whatever happens now will mean compromise by everyone, from local residents and drivers to Stonehenge visitors and archaeologists. We are all losers.
We all find it tempting to imagine that we can solve the Stonehenge and A303 road problems on our own, when two decades and a quoted £23m in research spending by government (to which more can be added by other parties) have failed. The fact is that even as it scrapped the approved project, the government recognised it was the only acceptable complete solution. Every conceivable road route and visitor centre option has been examined (you get that for £23m). Whatever happens now will mean compromise by everyone, from local residents and drivers to Stonehenge visitors and archaeologists. We are all losers.
Posted by: Garry Denke, Plano, Texas, USA on 9:15pm Thu 20 Dec 07
In 1985 A Texas Tycoon offered to finance a 2.4-mile (4km) long bored tunnel under Stonehenge provided: (a) That UNESCO list the monument by 1986 as a World Heritage Site and; (b) That A344 road and all of the artefacts below the Heelstone be removed. In July of 1986 UNESCO listed it and by 1989 A Texas Tycoon's improvement scheme for the A303 as it passes Stonehenge was finally put on the Government's Roads Programme. Fifty (50) possible routes other than A Texas Tycoon's 2.4 (4km) long bored tunnel scheme were considered prior to a public consultation. The Highways Agency held a Planning Conference in 1995 at which it time was recommended that THE ONLY ACCEPTABLE SCHEME was A Texas Tycoon's 1985 one. In 1996 the scheme was withdrawn from the Roads Programme because the Government was too proud to accept financing offered by A Texas Tycoon. My question is this: Do y'all still want to dig it or do y'all want to be losers?
In 1985 A Texas Tycoon offered to finance a 2.4-mile (4km) long bored tunnel under Stonehenge provided: (a) That UNESCO list the monument by 1986 as a World Heritage Site and; (b) That A344 road and all of the artefacts below the Heelstone be removed. In July of 1986 UNESCO listed it and by 1989 A Texas Tycoon's improvement scheme for the A303 as it passes Stonehenge was finally put on the Government's Roads Programme. Fifty (50) possible routes other than A Texas Tycoon's 2.4 (4km) long bored tunnel scheme were considered prior to a public consultation. The Highways Agency held a Planning Conference in 1995 at which it time was recommended that THE ONLY ACCEPTABLE SCHEME was A Texas Tycoon's 1985 one. In 1996 the scheme was withdrawn from the Roads Programme because the Government was too proud to accept financing offered by A Texas Tycoon. My question is this: Do y'all still want to dig it or do y'all want to be losers?
Posted by: John Ellis, Farley, Salisbury on 1:50pm Sat 12 Jan 08
I have sympathy for parts of the former Larkhill resident's solution but regrettably it is a non starter. It was roughly a line I actually submitted after the 1995 Conference only to be rejected when Grey Route was "removed" by the Minister concerned. Later, other good reasons for not building a detour inside the World Heritage Site came to light.
I also strongly agree witht the Visitor Centre Site on the ridge where the tunnel was to have started but a road diversion southward must start behind (east)of the ridge, unseen from Stonehenge.
May I draw your attention to my more detailed comment on the letter headed "[bold]Stonehenge decision is a chance to start again [/bold]
[italic]12:29pm Thursday 10th January 2008[/italic]
I have sympathy for parts of the former Larkhill resident's solution but regrettably it is a non starter. It was roughly a line I actually submitted after the 1995 Conference only to be rejected when Grey Route was "removed" by the Minister concerned. Later, other good reasons for not building a detour inside the World Heritage Site came to light.
I also strongly agree witht the Visitor Centre Site on the ridge where the tunnel was to have started but a road diversion southward must start behind (east)of the ridge, unseen from Stonehenge.
May I draw your attention to my more detailed comment on the letter headed "
Stonehenge decision is a chance to start again
12:29pm Thursday 10th January 2008
Posted by: Garry Denke, Plano, Texas, USA on 3:24pm Wed 16 Jan 08
[bold]Lord Stevens vs. Citizen Hughes[/bold]
Sir Jocelyn Stevens, the former chairman of English Heritage, was so set on seeing the Stonehenge Visitor Centre being constructed at Countess Road East. Her Majesty's Government was not. The seventy acres at Countess East was Sir Jocelyn Stevens' Grand Vision for the Centre - this is where he wanted it and this is where he was going to have it - come Hell or High water. On a page given over to the timetable for the Stonehenge proposals, it states that [italic]Lord Stevens of Stonehenge[/italic] would open the new Stonehenge Visitor Centre in the year 2000. It never happened, of course, because Allene Stone Gano Hughes, mother of Airman Howard R. Hughes, Jr., descendant of Catherine of Valois, Dowager Queen of England, by second husband Owen Tudor, previously proposed Airman's Corner West (A360/A344) for a Stonehenge Visitors' Centre in 1919, before Lt.-Col. William Hawley's excavations of 1919-1926. This is according to Air West Hughes' testimony at White Rock Court (Route 66), Kingman, Arizona, in the Fall of 1974 - [italic]Airman's West is where she[/italic] (Allene Stone Gano Hughes) [italic]wanted it and Airman's West is where she is going to have it[/italic], stated England's Citizen Hughes - all of Countess Road Residents Group agreed. Her Majesty's Government turned down A303 Stonehenge Improvement because English Heritage's Sir Jocelyn Stevens schemed Stonehenge Visitors' Centre at the wrong location, and because the 2.1-kilometre (1.3-mile) long-bored twin carriageway tunnel was too short, not their cost. Air West Hughes' Airman's West A303 Stonehenge Improvement Fund value currently exceeds £12.0 billion ($24.0 billion), so why not honor the Ancient's way of doing things, dig out the old deposits, and begin constructing and tunneling? Hell, this is why The Aviator, Citizen Hughes, moved to England in the first place (1973). Catherine of Valois, Dowager Queen of England
http://www.stoneheng
e-crrg.org.uk/index.
htm
Lord Stevens vs. Citizen Hughes
Sir Jocelyn Stevens, the former chairman of English Heritage, was so set on seeing the Stonehenge Visitor Centre being constructed at Countess Road East. Her Majesty's Government was not. The seventy acres at Countess East was Sir Jocelyn Stevens' Grand Vision for the Centre - this is where he wanted it and this is where he was going to have it - come Hell or High water. On a page given over to the timetable for the Stonehenge proposals, it states that
Lord Stevens of Stonehenge would open the new Stonehenge Visitor Centre in the year 2000. It never happened, of course, because Allene Stone Gano Hughes, mother of Airman Howard R. Hughes, Jr., descendant of Catherine of Valois, Dowager Queen of England, by second husband Owen Tudor, previously proposed Airman's Corner West (A360/A344) for a Stonehenge Visitors' Centre in 1919, before Lt.-Col. William Hawley's excavations of 1919-1926. This is according to Air West Hughes' testimony at White Rock Court (Route 66), Kingman, Arizona, in the Fall of 1974 -
Airman's West is where she (Allene Stone Gano Hughes)
wanted it and Airman's West is where she is going to have it, stated England's Citizen Hughes - all of Countess Road Residents Group agreed. Her Majesty's Government turned down A303 Stonehenge Improvement because English Heritage's Sir Jocelyn Stevens schemed Stonehenge Visitors' Centre at the wrong location, and because the 2.1-kilometre (1.3-mile) long-bored twin carriageway tunnel was too short, not their cost. Air West Hughes' Airman's West A303 Stonehenge Improvement Fund value currently exceeds £12.0 billion ($24.0 billion), so why not honor the Ancient's way of doing things, dig out the old deposits, and begin constructing and tunneling? Hell, this is why The Aviator, Citizen Hughes, moved to England in the first place (1973). Catherine of Valois, Dowager Queen of England
http://www.stoneheng
e-crrg.org.uk/index.
htm
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