The construction of the Blunsdon Bypass, 2006 to 2009
| Mon, 24 Aug 2009 22:40 Mr Blue Sky |
An important part of the A419/A417 trunk road runs between junction 15 of the M4 map and Junction 11A of the M5 map It follows roughly the route of an old Roman road, Ermin Way (or Ermin Street in places) and has long been part of the strategic road network. At intervals since the 1950s sections of it have been bypassed where the road ran through towns and villages such as Stratton St Margaret map Cricklade map and Cirencester map One village that remained without a bypass was Blunsdon, just north of Swindon, where the A419 ran through it and created something of a bottleneck as the road was speed-limited and traffic light-controlled in the heart of the village. Accordingly a bypass was planned, contracts let and ground was first broken in 2007 with a scheduled completion date of December 2008. I took a series of photographs in a somewhat unstructured way as and when I was able and these follow. The route of the bypass meant that a couple of premises had to be demolished, a roadside chain restaurant  and a service station  August 2007 and the first photographs of the groundworks      September 2007 and some of the infrastructure such as bridgework is taking shape   November 2007 and the site is still pretty much a mudpatch     May 2008 when surfacing commenced              June 2008 sees rapid progress and opening of the north-bound carriageway is imminent        July 2008 sees the opening of the north-bound carriageway to traffic      November 2008 arrives and by the middle of the month the south-bound carriageway is opened to traffic.       ‘Tidying-up’ work continues for some weeks thereafter and speed limits remain in force but by early 2009,  the work is complete and speed limits removed (other than the national limit of 70 mph).Now the only significant bottleneck on the A419/A417 between the motorways is the notorious Nettleton Bottom map which is likely to remain in its present form for the foreseeable future. NOTE: I keep this gallery locked to stop the verbally incontinent who occasionally surface from messing it up. If anyone wants to add an image please contact me via my profile page. |
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| Wed, 26 Aug 2009 20:28 Mr Blue Sky |
To see these image as a slideshow please click here |
| Fri, 28 May 2010 19:23 Mr Blue Sky |
May 2010 and concrete evidence that the project is complete can be seen in these images    |
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