Stuart wrote:
RW wrote:

It is about time they did something about the A406. It is absolutely
ridiculous that such a strategic trunk road linking east/north/west
London has so many bottlenecks, resulting in absurdly long journey
times and frayed nerves.

Some sections are OK (up to 5 lanes each way with underpasses and slip
roads) but other sections have just one lane each way and traffic
lights at busy junctions.


It is long overdue.

The frustrating thing is that most of the ground work has been done;
houses have been bought and demolished and in the case of the Bounds
Green - Green Lanes stretch there are already extra bridge 'arches' for
the extra lanes to go.

The main problem is Henlys Corner, especially westbound. To have 2 major
road merge in and out like that is just ridiculous. either side is dual
carriageway, surely even a basic 4 lane flyover would relieve things
immensely.

Building a flyover harks back to the 60s when it was considered
acceptable to plonk concrete megaliths in the middle of residential
areas because car traffic was much more important than everything else.
See the Westway. It's interesting to watch the cityscape as you're going
along it, but it's probably not so nice the look out of your house at
the Westway.

The Government-approved scheme which was scrapped recently was to build
a tunnel at Henlys Corner. Although much better for local residents than
a flyover, it would have been extremely expensive and that's why the
Mayor dropped it when he published his Transport Strategy in 2001.
Rather than making improvements just for car users, it seems more
appropriate to improve safety for motorists and pedestrians at the
junction (given that the current footbridges are virtually unused as
pedestrians don't like being relegated to bridges and tunnels).

--
Dave Arquati
Imperial College, SW7
www.alwaystouchout.com - Transport projects in London