A303 - the queues will go on

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Thu 9 Apr 2009 17:38
A303 - the queues will go on - paulvm
and on and on. Just read in the local paper a response to a question from Salisbury MP about when the A303 will be upgraded. Yes, you've guessed the answer already! Apparently the next review is not scheduled until 2014, knowing how long discussions will take after the review, then nothing is going to change for many years. I have lived in the area for over 25 years, and nothing has changed yet.
So all you happy travellers using the A303 to get down to the South West had better plan to stagger your journeys. The pinch point at Stonehenge will continue to have long tailbacks, about 3 miles there this afternoon, and again where the Wyle Valley dual carriageway goes back down to single lanes. Oh well, perhaps I'll just open a tea stall in the layby on the hill.
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Thu 9 Apr 2009 21:57
A303 - the queues will go on - mike hannon
It's quite unbelievable, isn't it? When I worked for the local newspaper in South Wiltshire the best part of 20 years ago the debates over the A303 and the Salisbury by-pass were well under way. But nothing has happened. What is wrong with these people? Thank heavens I live in France now, where when they decide to build a by-pass or carry out a road upgrading scheme it's done almost before you notice the earth-movers are working. And the environment doesn't seem to have been irrevocably damaged...
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Thu 9 Apr 2009 22:22
A303 - the queues will go on - Alby Back
Mike, I know you live in France. I don't, but have been travelling through the country or to it for most of my adult life, I can't help but agree with you, for some reason their road system by and large just works. With the possible exception of the Paris peripherique ! ( spelling ? )

The project which most amazed me was the Millau ( spelling ? ) bridge. Just a fantastic piece of engineering. I seem to think it was featured on Top gear a while back. It seemed to not be there one year and part of the landscape the next. Probably not but you know what I mean.

I am, I have to say, fairly jealous of where you live.....

;-)

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Fri 10 Apr 2009 01:01
A303 - the queues will go on - Avant
My Trafficmaster machine warned me of a jam near Stonehenge last Friday(westbound). Look at map - turn right on to A345 at Countess roundabout near Amesbury - up A345, left at Durrington for Larkhill - past Army camp - left on to B3086 - straight over on to A360 and back to A303.

Only any use if the jam is between these points, but it so often is.
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Fri 10 Apr 2009 02:12
A303 - the queues will go on - PoloGirl
Yep, lots of other ways to go, and it's very rare to encounter a jam on the A303 if you go late at night or very early in the morning.

What's unbelievable to me is the amount of people who set out at 4pm on a Friday and wonder why they get stuck. There's no need (appreciating the fact that I live in Hampshire and can leave at 9pm and arrive in North Cornwall just around midnight - I know it's not that simple for others but even so...)!

Edited by PoloGirl on 10/04/2009 at 02:13

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