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Roland Perry · December 13th 19, 07:10 AM posted to uk.transport.london

In message , at 12:08:39 on Thu, 12 Dec
2019, remarked:
On Wed, 11 Dec 2019 17:59:15 +0000
Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 16:19:11 on Wed, 11 Dec
2019, remarked:
On Wed, 11 Dec 2019 15:19:11 +0000
Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 08:58:44 on Wed, 11 Dec
2019, tim... remarked:
It just came from someone with a "goods should be carried by rail"
prejudice (and to be fair there's nothing actually wrong with thinking
that)

He was quoting what I believe to be mis-informed locals.

As I said if anyobe had bothered to read - I have relatives living in a
village near Huntingdon directly impacted by this bloody bypass. The amount
of farmland concreted over for it just so some drivers can save 15 mins is
obscene and thats before the extra pollution and noise is taken into account.

You also wrote, and I bothered to read: "All so trucks can save 10 mins
on their way from Felixstow instead of putting the containers on trains
where they should be."

Last time I looked lorries were still driven by drivers.

I honestly can't make sense of that remark's relevance to the urban myth
regarding port traffic.

The reasons are irrelevant, the bypass is the problem.

The new bit of bypass is just one part of the scheme. The more important
section from Cambridge services to Girton isn't open yet. That's just a
widening project.

If the old A14 were to be dug up and returned to farmland it wouldn't
be so bad but we all know the chances of that happening are zero.

The "old A14" (that's been bypassed) *is* being dug up, and returned to
urban roads within central Huntingdon. People still need to be able to
get from central Huntingdon to Girton and beyond, so a reduced capacity
route is being created, along the old alignment, south to the Cambridge
Services, and beyond.

About half the traffic is going to and from Cambridge, mainly cars, and
this has increased over the years, and will continue to increase due to
local house building at Northstowe, St Ives etc.

The time which will be saved between Huntingdon and Girton is well over
15 minutes.

No one cares apart from those commuting.

The other half of the traffic cares too, because they are currently
stuck in jams created by the volume local commuters.

Then there's the viaduct over the East Coast mainline, which has been
crumbling down for years. Rather than try to rebuild what's really a
Huntingdon inner ring road, the answer is a proper bypass.

Though oddly the viaduct has already been re-designated the A1307.

That's because the A14 now goes *around* Huntingdon.

Apparently the danger of it falling down seem to have disappeared.

Look again. That section of road of road has been closed to traffic, and
the next stage is to demolish the viaduct. Then rebuilt as a single
carriageway with the crossing of the railway achieved by new access
roads down from the upper level to ground level, across the railway on
an existing local bridge and back up again the other side.
--
Roland Perry