I often have to use this route and can't wait for the tunnel to be opened - however I was a little surprised to read the current road is going to be blocked off - so if there's an accident in one of the tunnels - the other one will be switched over (sounds slightly dangerous - but thats the route they've gone.
What I want to know is how we'll be able to get to Haslemere or Hindhead as we won't be able to turn left or right at the traffic lights as we currently do - will it be minor roads ?
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Depends where you come from.
If traveling south, you can come off the junctions before the tunnel, through haslemere and up into hindhead and the common.
If coming north, you can come off before and into hindhead.
At last, people will be able to explore Hindhead common with some peace and quiet.
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I noticed on the video clip of the walk through day that there are overhead gantry lights similar to the motorway ones.
So there can be controlled two way traffic in one bore when sorting out / maintaining the closed bore.
( hopefully non motorway users understand what a red cross in the air means)
From London the route is through the tunnel to the first interchange and then double back.
This interchange has been finished for months.
Going south through the traffic lights you are soon directed to that interchange and then onto the new dual carriageway.
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"The tunnel and the new dual carriageway either side of Hindhead are expected to open some time in the first fortnight of July"
From portsmouth.co.uk
or
The tunnel is due to open to traffic in three weeks' time.
meanwhile "Surrey emergency teams test response in Hindhead tunnel"
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-surrey-13784967
Piston heads ...
"they are hoping for the 6th July for the southbound tunnel followed a few days later by the northbound tunnel (the road needs to rearranged!!"
Under promise and over deliver ?
Most odd that the date has still not been formally published.
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>> "The tunnel and the new dual carriageway either side of Hindhead are expected to open
>> some time in the first fortnight of July"
>>
It still had not opened as of yesterday, and there was a fair queue northbound last night coming back from a lovely day on the beach.
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Blimey, I go down that way a lot, not used hindhead for a number of years due to the jams. Avoid it like the plague.
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I agree, but on the way down there was absolutely no queue at all. The law of the sod was that coming back the queue started just after the point of no return for my usual detour. Such is life!
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I was down there again yesterday. The sign says "Opening July 2011", so they've got a couple of weeks to go.
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There must surely be an A3 / A287 junction somewhere at Hindhead?
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Many thanks. You had me worried when you said further up the thread that southbound traffic would have to go all the way down into Haslemere to get back to Hindhead. If so there'd be even more Disgusteds in Haslemere than in Tunbridge Wells.
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I said you could (which is what I would do but that probably just habit because that what i do now to avoid the slog up into Hindhead. ) but its not going to be the posted route.
Last edited by: Zero on Fri 15 Jul 11 at 09:08
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Just heard on the radio that it is due to open with a ribbon-cutting ceremony next Wednesday, 27th July.
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Here's the Highways Agency Press Release.
www.highways.gov.uk/news/pressrelease.aspx?pressreleaseid=420487
Looks like 27th for the southbound and a few days later for the northbound.
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How did it take so long to build though? Fairly cheap compared to:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egnatia_Odos_(modern_road)
I've been on a fair bit of this road in Greece and it's a bit of an engineering marvel though. Tunnels and bridges etc in the Pindos mountains. But helped bankrupt Greece. Few cars on it when I travelled either - and lorry drivers on strike.
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Ok who is going to be the first C4Per to go through it?
Hint, you will need to do it before tomorrow to beat me.
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Going that way on Friday, so as not to spoil Z's fun.
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Think I might pop down later today to claim the prize!
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Thats ok on a closed day, this is what you average punter sees.
Drive through the Hindhead tunnel, view from the lancer in 720HD, piloted by Zero, first C4Per through he tunnel.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHHopkxIsyA
Edit
Its got a specs enforced variable speed limit
Last edited by: Zero on Wed 27 Jul 11 at 16:34
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Time for another trip?
Hindhead Tunnel opens northbound
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-surrey-14339751
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"The old A3 is to be broken up and the land returned to nature, reuniting the Devil's Punch Bowl with Hindhead Common for the first time in almost 200 years."
I will go for the last C4Per to travel the old A3, I came back that way Friday night.
Anyway that report is inaccurate, the old byway has existed for far longer than 200 years.
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Tunnel both ways yesterday. What time it saved on the way out was eaten up before we got there by the roadworks between Bracknell and Bagshot, but on the way back from the West Sussex coast I estimate it took almost 30 minutes off our previous time.
Also a pleasant surprise that there's no 50 mph limit in the tunnel to cause congestion on the approaches. Good lighting inside, good surfaces - very impressed.
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>> Tunnel both ways yesterday. What time it saved on the way out was eaten up
>> before we got there by the roadworks between Bracknell and Bagshot, but on the way
>> back from the West Sussex coast I estimate it took almost 30 minutes off our
>> previous time.
Thats a strange route WdB! I would have crossed the A3 to get to West Sussex from Bracknell but not travelled along it.
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>> I will go for the last C4Per to travel the old A3, I came back
>> that way Friday night.
Correction - Wednesday night.
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West Sussex is pretty wide, Z, and our bit is almost in Hampshire. It's an awkward route whatever we do - have to cross the M4 and the M3 so it's nice to be able to use one of the fast roads we see.
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Assuming then you are hitting the witterings type area, I always prefer the nice routes over the Sussex downs, so would cross the A3, I guess you go down the A3 and cut back on the M27.
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Not quite: A3 to Rowlands Castle, down to Emsworth then back into Sussex along the coast road. The Downs route - Petworth, Midhurst, Lavant - is pretty but awfully slow when we want to do both ways in a day with some social time in between. M3-M27 is quicker but a long way round. The new tunnel suits us very nicely. Now perhaps if someone could build one under Reading...
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>> Now perhaps if someone could build one under Reading...
>>
What's needed here is simply the completion of the 40-year overdue third Thames bridge at Thames Valley Park (shelved M31 project) and a new connection to Bix and onwards to the A34 at Oxford. That would re-route all the current cross town traffic which is only passing through, alleviate the congestion on the bridges in town and cut back on traffic using the A4074 "13 Bends of Death" route to the north.
I'm not holding my breath. Oxfordshire County Council are a bunch of, well, this site has a swear filter.
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>> "The old A3 is to be broken up and the land returned to nature, reuniting
>> the Devil's Punch Bowl with Hindhead Common for the first time in almost 200 years."
>>
Some photos here
Hindhead's old A3 is being returned to heathland
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-surrey-14655947
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Well i am pleased then that not only did I take one of the first trips through the tunnel, I took one of the last trips back along the old A3. I hope they leave a path, and keep the trees cut back, thats a hell of a view from that road.
The old A3, before it was the A3, the old path was much higher
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>>I hope they leave a path, and keep the trees cut back, thats a hell of a view from that road.
Looks promising.
Some more photos of the ex A3 Portsmouth Road and ex traffic lights.
a3tunnel.blogspot.com/
www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/s/2098653_work_starts_to_restore_hindhead_countryside
www.petersfieldpost.co.uk/news/local-businesses/after_the_tunnel_what_is_next_for_hindhead_1_2938667
The effects on traders etc
"Meanwhile, a byway, which runs parallel to the current A3 road, will be improved and resurfaced in order to provide an alternative route for cyclists, walkers and horse riders."
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In the news today, as "wealthy young drivers" stage unofficial time trials in their Ferraris, Lamborghinis and Aston Martins:
tgr.ph/neo2Hr
I wonder if that's the same crowd that double park outside Harrods in the summer months?
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>>tgr.ph/neo2Hr
The link does not work and even attempting to access via the DT fails so the DT has a small problem.
"Hindhead tunnel 'turned into Monaco race track'
September 1 2011 | John-Paul Ford Rojas | Motoring
Residents who waited years for a new tunnel to end congestion that choked a busy main road are facing the new menace of wealthy young drivers who have turned the route into a 200mph race track."
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>> The link does not work and even attempting to access via the DT fails
The DT article seems to have been deleted, although it still shows up if you search Google News for "hindhead". Here's another source, although no mention of supercars in this one:
www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/s/2098753_new_tunnel_road_draws_boy_racers
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>> although no mention of supercars in this
>> one:
>>
>> www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/s/2098753_new_tunnel_road_draws_boy_racers
Apart from "“They’re turning up in their souped-up cars, their Ferarris, Aston Martins, Lamborginis, so they’re obviously not just young drivers"
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>> Apart from "“They’re turning up in their souped-up cars, their Ferarris, Aston Martins, Lamborginis,
>> so they’re obviously not just young drivers"
Oops. Missed that bit.
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Police say boyracers use new tunnel as racetrack
www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/15022710
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Through it both ways again today, after dark on the way north. I was a little concerned that the excellent lighting inside might leave me struggling to see when I emerged, but no such problem; they've clearly anticipated that and gauged the lighting just right.
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Hindhead businesses lose custom after tunnel opens
( no surprise there unfortunately)
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-surrey-15740639
"The HA said it was working hard to keep disruption caused by restoration work to a minimum and was on course to complete the lion's share of the work by the end of the year."
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I am surprised in this day and age they could design the tunnel so that telephones and radios should still be useable - but no, total loss of calls and crackle on the radio - shoddy work
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>> I am surprised in this day and age they could design the tunnel so that
>> telephones and radios should still be useable - but no, total loss of calls and
>> crackle on the radio - shoddy work
Something wrong with your radio, mine works perfectly, on Am and FM, all the way through.
One of the things I checked.,
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>> I am surprised in this day and age they could design the tunnel so that
>> telephones and radios should still be useable - but no, total loss of calls and
>> crackle on the radio - shoddy work
Tunnels are always RF proof, not something that can be designed out. Kit could be installed to provide phone coverage but radio on all stations would be a chellenge.
I beleive the French manage to retain 'Autoroute Radio' cover in some tunnels but that's linear coverage by along the line of the road. Probably done using a repeaters each with slight offset either side of the published frequency to avoid a 'two at once' screech.
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They build tunnels (including Hindhead) with leaky feeders, to enable the reception of your car radio. The Hatfield tunnel has been retrofitted with it. Its quite easy, just a broadband booster required.
Last edited by: Zero on Wed 16 Nov 11 at 19:58
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Years ago I was staying in a hotel south of the Thames but working on the other side of the Dartford tunnel/bridge. Traffic was stopped in the tunnel so I called my colleague to let him know. He wouldn't believe I was stuck in the tunnel because I was able to call (near the exit mind)... he claimed I must have got up late :-)
Last edited by: rtj70 on Wed 16 Nov 11 at 21:56
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The phone signal is just fine all the way through the Dartford Tunnel but it never fails to drop the signal as you come up the slope out of the tunnel!
Pat
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I wonder which bright spark thought that a Sunday evening during the summer holidays (last night) would be a good time to carry out maintenance works on the northbound tunnel? Quelle surprise, then, that there were 30 minute queues.
I can understand the need for overtime payments for the workers, etc. but I would have thought if you must work in the evening, mid-week would be better than Sunday?
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no time is a good time on that road.
In fairness this stuff gets planned a week or so in advance, the weather forecast for that weekend was dire and they could assume traffic flows would be lighter.
Last edited by: Zero on Mon 29 Jul 13 at 12:17
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>> I wonder which bright spark thought that a Sunday evening during the summer holidays (last
>> night) would be a good time to carry out maintenance works on the northbound tunnel?
>> Quelle surprise, then, that there were 30 minute queues.
>>
>> I can understand the need for overtime payments for the workers, etc. but I would
>> have thought if you must work in the evening, mid-week would be better than Sunday?
>>
30 minutes! I thought you lot down there were used to traffic. Oh I forgot it is the ME! NOW! Hurry hurry, rush rush South East. :-)
I believe that railway engineering works are done at weekends, as is work on choke point road bridges in this area, they are well advertised so a little planning usually resolves any problems.
Last edited by: Old Navy on Mon 29 Jul 13 at 12:45
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A3 Tunnel at Hindhead - Zero
