Four-mile road closure leaves motorists with a 100MILLION-mile diversion

By Daily Mail Reporter
Updated: 14:48 EST, 16 December 2008

The Highways Agency was condemned today for a road closure which will leave motorists with a 100million-mile diversion.

A four-mile stretch of the A303 in Wiltshire will close for over three months next year and the 30,000 motorists who use it every day will face a 50-mile detour eastbound and a 16.5-mile detour westbound.

The diversion adds up to a collective 98million-miles - the equivalent of driving to the moon and back 204 times.

It will cost drivers an extra £10million in petrol, wear and tear and pump more than 8,000 tonnes of extra carbon into the atmosphere.

Local Liberal Democrat MP David Heath has raised the issue in Parliament and called on the Transport Minister to explain the closure.

He said: 'This closure is for the convenience of the contractors rather than the interests - both economic, environmental and social - of the people I represent.

'I'm very concerned not only because of the huge disruption and inconvenience but also because of the damage to the environment of local residents.

'I had a meeting with the Transport Minister [Lord Adonis] and he has undertaken to look into it. Hopefully something can be done about it. I got a strong impression that he thought it was over the top as well.'

West Wiltshire MP Andrew Murrison said he fears surrounding villages will be clogged with traffic and drivers seek short-cuts away from the official diversion route.

The Conservative said: 'I accept that the work has to be done, but believe the level of disruption will be greater than the agency expects and the planned diversions are very optimistic.

'People will undoubtedly seek more direct routes using sat-nav through villages.' 

The A303 is a key arterial route through Wiltshire and Somerset that connects London with the South West.

A four-mile stretch will be shut completely for reconstruction and resurfacing work between Chicklade and Mere beginning on February 9th for an estimated 14 weeks.

But because of the heavy volume of traffic on the road, the official diversions are via major A roads.

That means the eastbound diversion starts at Podimore in Somerset - some 18-miles away from the closed section - and takes drivers on a 50-mile trek via Shepton Mallet, Frome and Warminster before rejoining the A303 at Deptford.

The closure will bring 'horrendous' traffic to nearby villages

Meanwhile, the 15,000 daily westbound motorists will be directed off the A303 at Chicklade and along a 16.5-mile detour via Shaftesbury in Dorset before rejoining the main road at Bayford, near Wincanton.

The collective distance of 30,000 cars driving the detours in both directions for the 98-day period is 97,755,000 miles - just under a million miles a day.

The diversion route adds another 22-miles on a round-trip when compared to driving along the A303 between the start and finish points of the detour.

This is a collective 32million extra miles - the equivalent to driving 239,228-miles to the moon 135 times - or 67 return trips - or circumnavigating the equator 1,299 times.

Locals estimate the eastbound route will add an hour to their journeys and the westbound route 30 minutes.

With the average car producing 0.254kg of carbon dioxide per mile travelled (according to the European Federation for Transport and Environment), the diversion will see motorists pump an extra 8,224 tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere.

And with the typical car costing 30p per mile to run in fuel, maintenance and depreciation, the collective bill will be £9.7million to motorists who use the route.

Residents and politicians are urging officials to consider staggering the work or create a single-lane traffic option.

Salisbury District Councillor David Parker (Independent), who lives in the village of Teffont only 1.5-miles from the A303, says the 'horrendous' knock-on effect will be felt in 50 villages throughout Wiltshire and Somerset.

He said: 'I think it will be an absolute catastrophe. It will bring the area to its knees.

'Traffic on the A303 is already horrendous, but this road closure will make it so much worse.

'I don't think the people who make these decisions have an ounce of an idea of what it is like to live in the countryside.'

Wiltshire County Councillor Ian West (Lib Dem), who lives ten-miles east of the closure at Winterbourne Stoke, added: 'I think the lives of people in that vicinity will be hell.

'An average of 30,000 vehicles pass through my village on the A303 every day - you are talking motorway volumes of traffic.

'Imagine all those lorries and cars being diverted through the countryside. It's going to be horrific for people living there.' 

Meanwhile, the Road Haulage Association (RHA) has lodged a formal complaint to the Highway Agency's chief executive, Graham Dalton, because of the extra costs its members will incur.

RHA chief Roger King said: 'I doubt whether any haulier could recover a surcharge from the customer to cover detour costs.' 

The Highways Agency says the work needs to be carried out to prevent a complete collapse in about five years' time.

Spokesman Dave Frampton said: 'We need to reconstruct the road. If we don't do it the road will fail in the next five years or so.

'We've looked at other possibilities such as working at night or having a single lane of traffic flowing through.

'But the fact that we've got deep excavations, we're doing lots of barrier work and getting safety zones for our workforce and the travelling public, mean it's just not possible to do it any other way.'