A40 Acton Bridges

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Mon 7 Dec 2009 16:45
A40 Acton Bridges - boxsterboy
For what seems ages, the A40 Acton railway bridges have been undergoing a re-building programme. I've been down there twice now, and I still can't believe what they have done.

West of Gypsy Corner and east of Savoy Circus, the A40 Western Avenue has long been a 3-lane dual carriage way. In between there was a section that went over a couple of railway bridges that has long been a 2-lane bottle-neck. A few years back proposals to subsatntially upgrade both the Gypsy Corner and Savoy Circus junctions were dismissed on grounds of cost, but not before a row of houses on the south side of the Western Avenue were demolished in preparation. The renewal of the Acton Bridges (the bit in between the two circuses) went ahead, presumably on bridge strength grounds, but rather than make a 3-lane section and remove the bottle neck, the Highways Agency have decided to renew it with a 2-lane section with nice wide paths etc. (where 3-lanes would easily fit).

Thereby ensuring congestion continues, along with its raised emmissions, CO2, and drivers' blood pressure! Madness!

Or is it just me?
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Mon 7 Dec 2009 16:51
A40 Acton Bridges - Old Navy
No, not just you, Government anti car policy.
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Mon 7 Dec 2009 18:40
A40 Acton Bridges - Ben 10
No, not just you Box, I couldn't believe it either. Here was an ideal opportunity to widen this section that contributes to the jams strecthing back past the gyratory, and further on occasions. Seeing as we put up with the congestion while they were building the things, they've accomplished nothing.
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Tue 8 Dec 2009 10:51
A40 Acton Bridges - stevied
I drove 2 miles this morning and there were no roadworks.... : )

No, really, I would have to agree... I don't get any of these schemes. There's a similar one in Crewe... 2 lanes down to one, despite the fact that it's the main road past the station (quite a busy one as some of you will no doubt know) and there is no decent public transport.

I hate to quote Clarkson, but I had to agree with something he said in an article the other day: something like "when the government says "motorists" it basically means adults who need to go somewhere". How can we need to keep the economy going and at the same time be stopped from doing it? I apologise most insincerely that I don't live in London and have an inhuman underground train option to get to work, but I think you will find that about 80% of the country doesn't. If only our elitist rulers would get this into their thick skulls...
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