Stonehenge Tunnel = £1,600,000,000 (yes, that's right)
Stonehenge Tunnel = £1,600,000,000 (yes, that's right)
OK, it's Highways England so give them a bit of slack. Engineers (particularly those badgered by lobbyists all day long) are supposed to solve problems, not look at the wider picture. So you say to them: create a dual carriageway road all the way to Cornwall and work out what to do about Stonehenge when you get to the end. So they do and they come up with the idea for a tunnel. Which will cost £1.6bn.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/201 ... -published
You couldn't make it up. Even children wouldn't be this stupid. So here we go:
My God, if it wasn't so awful I would just laugh and laugh. But these people are in charge of huge earth-moving equipment - their games cause real damage. Please could someone do something about this lunatic organisation.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/201 ... -published
You couldn't make it up. Even children wouldn't be this stupid. So here we go:
My God, if it wasn't so awful I would just laugh and laugh. But these people are in charge of huge earth-moving equipment - their games cause real damage. Please could someone do something about this lunatic organisation.
Last edited by Graham on 10 Feb 2018, 9:16am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Title
Reason: Title
When the pestilence strikes from the East, go far and breathe the cold air deeply. Ignore the sage, stay not indoors. Ho Ri Zon 12th Century Chinese philosopher
Re: £1,600,000,000 (yes, that's right)
^
I dont get it
I dont get it
Re: £1,600,000,000 (yes, that's right)
^
not just me then.
not just me then.
Re: £1,600,000,000 (yes, that's right)
The original plan was scrapped due to the estimared cost. That was about 30 years ago. Since then a number of plans have been scraped for various reasons...the amount spent on consultations alone is now several times the estimate for completing the original plan! Problem is that the landscape down there is so congested archaeology, important natural sites, nimbys, new age religious sites, etc that wherever you put the bypass its going to cause major upset to someone.
Last summer, while excavation across the stonehenge landscape we were told that under no circumstances whatsoever were we to tell any one that we were making a start on the tunnel for fear of being chased off by mobs armed with blazing torches and pitchforks
Last summer, while excavation across the stonehenge landscape we were told that under no circumstances whatsoever were we to tell any one that we were making a start on the tunnel for fear of being chased off by mobs armed with blazing torches and pitchforks
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Re: £1,600,000,000 (yes, that's right)
I suspect horizon sees a tunnel to protect the landscape around Stonehenge (note that's the whole area around it that's important) as too much to spend. Shall we have the discussion on the value of archaeological landscapes as important as around Stonehenge, the great pyramids, Macchu Picchu, forbidden city, those great civilization sites in Zimbabwe, North America, Indus, etc.
Put simply would you pay £1.6 billion pounds of state money on tunneling under a UNESCO world heritage landscape that's still subject to research and is still turning up important finds that further understanding of these ancient cultures? Or would you save money by building through that uninvestigated landscape destroying what's there.
IMHO the tunnel protects the landscape to allow for future discoveries. In the long term £1.6 billion won't be considered important. Stonehenge landscape will be considered more important long after we're gone.
Put simply would you pay £1.6 billion pounds of state money on tunneling under a UNESCO world heritage landscape that's still subject to research and is still turning up important finds that further understanding of these ancient cultures? Or would you save money by building through that uninvestigated landscape destroying what's there.
IMHO the tunnel protects the landscape to allow for future discoveries. In the long term £1.6 billion won't be considered important. Stonehenge landscape will be considered more important long after we're gone.
Re: £1,600,000,000 (yes, that's right)
you're assuming that the tunnelling won't destroy anything of importance?
A shortcut has to be a challenge, otherwise it would just be the way. No situation is so dire that panic cannot make it worse.
There are two kinds of people in this world: those can extrapolate from incomplete data.
There are two kinds of people in this world: those can extrapolate from incomplete data.
Re: £1,600,000,000 (yes, that's right)
Tangled Metal wrote:Put simply would you pay £1.6 billion pounds of state money on tunneling under a UNESCO world heritage landscape that's still subject to research and is still turning up important finds that further understanding of these ancient cultures? Or would you save money by building through that uninvestigated landscape destroying what's there.
I would invest 1,6 billion pounds in the public transport system and ban cars from from the world heritage landscape.
“In some ways, it is easier to be a dissident, for then one is without responsibility.”
― Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom
― Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom
Re: £1,600,000,000 (yes, that's right)
Vorpal wrote:Tangled Metal wrote:Put simply would you pay £1.6 billion pounds of state money on tunneling under a UNESCO world heritage landscape that's still subject to research and is still turning up important finds that further understanding of these ancient cultures? Or would you save money by building through that uninvestigated landscape destroying what's there.
I would invest 1,6 billion pounds in the public transport system and ban cars from from the world heritage landscape.
Trouble is, people live in the area. It isn't just a museum, it is an inhabited rural landscape with nearby towns connected by roads that pass through the sensitive site.
Re: £1,600,000,000 (yes, that's right)
Is Stonehenge really that important? I remember as a kid it was one of several stone circles you could go right up to. You still can with all the others, but Stonehenge has now become a fortress, with all sorts of measures to stop you getting close. Maybe the tunnel should be paid for by English Heritage, so you can't even get a glimpse without giving them your £15.
It's not something I know much about, but does it have so much more importance than any of the others? At Arbour Low in Derbyshire, you put a quid in the honesty box, walk through the farmyard and kids are often climbing on the stones.
It's not something I know much about, but does it have so much more importance than any of the others? At Arbour Low in Derbyshire, you put a quid in the honesty box, walk through the farmyard and kids are often climbing on the stones.
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Re: £1,600,000,000 (yes, that's right)
Stonehenge is the biggest by far
And the most important?
And the most important?
Entertainer, juvenile, curmudgeon, PoB, 30120
Cycling-of course, but it is far better on a Gillott
We love safety cameras, we hate bullies
Cycling-of course, but it is far better on a Gillott
We love safety cameras, we hate bullies
Re: £1,600,000,000 (yes, that's right)
PH wrote:Is Stonehenge really that important? I remember as a kid it was one of several stone circles you could go right up to. You still can with all the others, but Stonehenge has now become a fortress, with all sorts of measures to stop you getting close. Maybe the tunnel should be paid for by English Heritage, so you can't even get a glimpse without giving them your £15.
It's not something I know much about, but does it have so much more importance than any of the others? At Arbour Low in Derbyshire, you put a quid in the honesty box, walk through the farmyard and kids are often climbing on the stones.
If you visit the area and look at the maps it is striking just how rich that area is in prehistoric sites. Avebury and Silbury Hill are nearby, and the Stone Henge complex goes on for far beyond the site people think of, with lots of stuff unseen beneath the ground. The big assembly of stones we call Stone Henge is just a prominent feature amid a lot of other things. Nowhere else in England, and few other places in Europe, has a greater concentration of prehistoric archaeology. And it is still being discovered.
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Re: £1,600,000,000 (yes, that's right)
The stones came from Wales of course
Cymru am byth!
Cymru am byth!
Entertainer, juvenile, curmudgeon, PoB, 30120
Cycling-of course, but it is far better on a Gillott
We love safety cameras, we hate bullies
Cycling-of course, but it is far better on a Gillott
We love safety cameras, we hate bullies
Re: £1,600,000,000 (yes, that's right)
Tangled Metal wrote:Put simply would you pay £1.6 billion pounds of state money on tunneling under a UNESCO world heritage landscape that's still subject to research and is still turning up important finds that further understanding of these ancient cultures? Or would you save money by building through that uninvestigated landscape destroying what's there.
Got it in one!!!
You can either build a tunnel or you can build a road across an archaeological landscape - that's the choice. Would you like a road Sir or would Sir like a road? Do they think we are really that stupid that we swallow such guff?
Basically you can reduce the traffic around Stonehenge by having a man in a white coat and a small shed (cost £199 from B and Q) collecting tolls from those who really need to go that way at peak time.
But that isn't what it is about. It is about firstly constructing a four lane dual carriageway to Cornwall - don't forget they wanted to ram this road across the Blackdown Hills. Secondly it's about dishing out huge road building contracts.They thought that if they left the Stonehenge stretch until last, logic would dictate its building. Well, that hasn't quite worked out but hey, the contract just got bigger! The absolute criteria for this road by the way are that it must be free at the point of use and four lanes (rwo on either side). This is so Mr Motorist can drive unhindered whenever and wherever he wants without regard to any other cultural value. Well maybe Stonehenge is just too big even for Mr Motorist.
The worst insult in all this is that they really think we believe them when they talk about saving Stonehenge - the old biddies in the National Trust have certainly been taken to the cleaners and back - they probably sold them some double-glazing while they were at it.
Last edited by horizon on 8 Feb 2018, 11:22am, edited 1 time in total.
When the pestilence strikes from the East, go far and breathe the cold air deeply. Ignore the sage, stay not indoors. Ho Ri Zon 12th Century Chinese philosopher
Re: £1,600,000,000 (yes, that's right)
Cyril Haearn wrote:The stones came from Wales of course
Cymru am byth!
Only a few of them.
Re: £1,600,000,000 (yes, that's right)
pwa wrote:Vorpal wrote:Tangled Metal wrote:Put simply would you pay £1.6 billion pounds of state money on tunneling under a UNESCO world heritage landscape that's still subject to research and is still turning up important finds that further understanding of these ancient cultures? Or would you save money by building through that uninvestigated landscape destroying what's there.
I would invest 1,6 billion pounds in the public transport system and ban cars from from the world heritage landscape.
Trouble is, people live in the area. It isn't just a museum, it is an inhabited rural landscape with nearby towns connected by roads that pass through the sensitive site.
People have lived in the area for ages and ages. They seem to have mostly survived with the existing road infrastructure.
Ian