OFF: Stonehenge - going underground (the road not the Monument!)

[Jill Strobridge]

>From the CBA British Archaeology journal - March issue no.69
"After more than ten years of debate on the future of the main roads at
Stonehenge, the Government has decided to place the A303 in a 1.3 mile
(2.1km) bored tunnel.   The A344 will be closed.   After a public
inquiry later this year, the work on the tunnel could start in 2005 and
be completed three years after that at an expected cost of £183 million.
The design of the tunnel has yet to be finalised.   The decision to
build a bored tunnel, rather than a cut-and-cover tunnel, as proposed in
1999, follows persistent pressure from heritage bodies including the
CBA, English Heritage and the National Trust (BA, December).   CBA
Director George Lambrick welcomed the decision as a 'very great
improvement' on the original plan, but regretted that there had been no
political will for a longer bored tunnel.   'A 4.5km tunnel would cost
less than the Millennium Dome, but it would provide a benefit not for a
single year but for generations,' he said."
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Jill Strobridge <jill at theta-orionis.freeserve.co.uk>
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