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

"Dave Arquati" wrote in message
...

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).

Where are the footbridges at Henlys?

Incidentally, I have just designed a grade separated junction for Henlys on
the back of an envelope. It's easy - all it needs is two perpendicular
bridges and one somewhat skew bridge to give both the A1 and the A406 a
straight run through. All turns would be allowed, including A1 w/b to A406
e/b, which is currently banned. Land take would be small, and gradients
would be easy. Whether it could cope with the traffic flows is another
question.

--
John Rowland - Spamtrapped
Transport Plans for the London Area, updated 2001
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acro...69/tpftla.html
A man's vehicle is a symbol of his manhood.
That's why my vehicle's the Piccadilly Line -
It's the size of a county and it comes every two and a half minutes

John Rowland wrote:
"Dave Arquati" wrote in message
...

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).

Where are the footbridges at Henlys?

Incidentally, I have just designed a grade separated junction for
Henlys on the back of an envelope. It's easy - all it needs is two
perpendicular bridges and one somewhat skew bridge to give both the
A1 and the A406 a straight run through. All turns would be allowed,
including A1 w/b to A406 e/b, which is currently banned. Land take
would be small, and gradients would be easy. Whether it could cope
with the traffic flows is another question.

Have you taken into account the topography and the geology?

"Brimstone" wrote in message
...
John Rowland wrote:

Incidentally, I have just designed a grade separated
junction for Henlys on the back of an envelope.

Have you taken into account the topography

No problem, the envelope wasn't that crumpled.

and the geology?

No, why, should I have? I'm only talking about a few road bridges, not the
Petronas Towers.

--
John Rowland - Spamtrapped
Transport Plans for the London Area, updated 2001
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acro...69/tpftla.html
A man's vehicle is a symbol of his manhood.
That's why my vehicle's the Piccadilly Line -
It's the size of a county and it comes every two and a half minutes

"John Rowland" wrote in message
...
"Brimstone" wrote in message
...
John Rowland wrote:

Incidentally, I have just designed a grade separated
junction for Henlys on the back of an envelope.

Have you taken into account the topography

No problem, the envelope wasn't that crumpled.

and the geology?

No, why, should I have? I'm only talking about a few road bridges, not the
Petronas Towers.

Because if the geology isn't suitable the bridge will fall down, and a lot
of people will want to blame someone.

John Rowland wrote:
"Dave Arquati" wrote in message
...

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).


Where are the footbridges at Henlys?

Sorry, it's not at Henlys Corner itself but it's included within the
same scheme. It's down the road at the Brent St & Golders Green Rd
crossroads.

Incidentally, I have just designed a grade separated junction for Henlys on
the back of an envelope. It's easy - all it needs is two perpendicular
bridges and one somewhat skew bridge to give both the A1 and the A406 a
straight run through. All turns would be allowed, including A1 w/b to A406
e/b, which is currently banned. Land take would be small, and gradients
would be easy. Whether it could cope with the traffic flows is another
question.

I sense problems involved with Mutton Brook which runs directly
alongside the site. If you sink a foundation, won't it just fill up with
water there? (Bearing in mind I know nothing about engineering).

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

Dave Arquati typed

Where are the footbridges at Henlys?

Sorry, it's not at Henlys Corner itself but it's included within the
same scheme. It's down the road at the Brent St & Golders Green Rd
crossroads.

9/10 of a mile down the A406, actually. Very convenient for a pedestrian, NOT!

The footbridge is on the side of the A502 I tend not to use, (west, I
think) so that I have to cross it twice to use the footbridge. (Parents
live south of A406 and east of A502, brother lives north of A406 and
east of A502). Foot bridge entails walk about EIGHT times as long as
walk across A406.

(There is a subway-type crossing by the Mutton Brook about halfway
between Finchley Road and Golders Green Road at Courtleigh
Gardens/Bridge Lane though)

Incidentally, I have just designed a grade separated junction for
Henlys on
the back of an envelope. It's easy - all it needs is two perpendicular
bridges and one somewhat skew bridge to give both the A1 and the A406 a
straight run through. All turns would be allowed, including A1 w/b to A406
e/b, which is currently banned. Land take would be small, and gradients
would be easy. Whether it could cope with the traffic flows is another
question.

I sense problems involved with Mutton Brook which runs directly
alongside the site. If you sink a foundation, won't it just fill up with
water there? (Bearing in mind I know nothing about engineering).

The A406 is parallel to the river Brent and *never* gets flooded ;-)...

--
Helen D. Vecht:
Edgware.

"Dave Arquati" wrote in message
...
John Rowland wrote:

Where are the footbridges at Henlys?

It's down the road at the Brent St & Golders Green Rd crossroads.

I wouldn't call that virtually unused - there always seem to be at least one
person on it.

Incidentally, I have just designed a grade separated
junction for Henlys on the back of an envelope.
It's easy - all it needs is two perpendicular bridges
and one somewhat skew bridge to give both the A1
and the A406 a straight run through.

I sense problems involved with Mutton Brook which
runs directly alongside the site. If you sink a foundation,
won't it just fill up with water there? (Bearing in mind I
know nothing about engineering).

Neither do I, but if you look at the infrastructure a little further down at
Brent Cross and Staples Corner, I don't see why there would be
insurmountable problems. The official plan for Henlys involved two forked
tunnels each about a kilometre long, so I can't see three bridges, which are
in effect very short tunnels, being a show-stopper.

--
John Rowland - Spamtrapped
Transport Plans for the London Area, updated 2001
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acro...69/tpftla.html
A man's vehicle is a symbol of his manhood.
That's why my vehicle's the Piccadilly Line -
It's the size of a county and it comes every two and a half minutes

"John Rowland" wrote in
message ...

[snip]

I sense problems involved with Mutton Brook which
runs directly alongside the site. If you sink a foundation,
won't it just fill up with water there? (Bearing in mind I
know nothing about engineering).

Neither do I, but if you look at the infrastructure a little
further down at
Brent Cross and Staples Corner, I don't see why there would be
insurmountable problems.

[snip]

Talking of bridges across the North Circular Rd, there's a plan,
which may well happen, for part of the London Cycle Network in that
area, which is well worth taking note of, even if you only walk

The original planned bike route was up the Edgware Road, but that
seems a dead loss. Going up the Edgware Road with a bike you can
either go over the North Circular on the flyover, or round the
roundabout underneath. While you get nice views from the flyovers,
and surfing roundabouts is quite fun if you are a competent cyclist,
nobody wants to make either of two alternatives an official bike
route, except to the extent that every street and road in the area,
except for the M1, automatically is an offical bike route already,
just as they are official car routes as well.

The new plan, devised by a friend of Helen Vecht's actually, would
cross the North Circular Road a bit west of the Edgware Road, and aim
at the Welsh Harp dam, to cross the Welsh Harp/River Brent on the
dam. It would be pretty scenic. Besides the Welsh Harp environs
there are a surprising number of other parks for the route to go
through, such as Gladstone Park and Roe Green Park

It looks as if the route even will be cheaper than the original
plans.

The bureaucrats seem to think its ok, although they don't exactly
welcome it, because, from their perspective, all it does is
complicate their lives, putting timetables into the wrong financial
year, and suchlike. Thus a groundswell of popular support would be
welcome.

Jeremy Parker

"Jeremy Parker" wrote in message
...

The original planned bike route was up the Edgware
Road, but that seems a dead loss. Going up the
Edgware Road with a bike you can either go over

under!

the North Circular on the flyover, or round the
roundabout underneath.

The new plan, devised by a friend of Helen Vecht's
actually, would cross the North Circular Road a bit
west of the Edgware Road, and aim at the Welsh Harp
dam, to cross the Welsh Harp/River Brent on the
dam. It would be pretty scenic.

Excellent! I'd love to be able to get on top of the dam. I've always thought
of it as a minor tourist attraction which wasn't being exploited.

--
John Rowland - Spamtrapped
Transport Plans for the London Area, updated 2001
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acro...69/tpftla.html
A man's vehicle is a symbol of his manhood.
That's why my vehicle's the Piccadilly Line -
It's the size of a county and it comes every two and a half minutes