New A2 slip road goes ahead despite budget cuts
19th July 2010
Source: Your Canterbury
The new A2 slip road which will help relieve Canterbury's traffic problems got the final go-ahead on Monday despite massive budget cuts at county hall.
Kent County Council's budget for highways schemes was cut by more than £4 million, but the £1.4 million Wincheap slip road was given priority and so survived.
John Farmer, major projects manager for Kent County Council, updated members of the city council about the scheme's progress at a meeting on Monday, July 12.
He said: "Finance is the key concern. This scheme is funded from the integrated transport budget. A few weeks ago government, as part of their cuts across the board, made a substantial cut in that budget.
"But I am pleased to say the paper went to our cabinet today and a revised programme was agreed to deal with those cuts, but the slip road was given priority and so a significant amount of funding was made available to make a substantive start on it."
The new road will allow drivers to get on to the A2 London-bound from Wincheap. Currently motorists can only get to Dover from the junction and so have to drive through Wincheap and Canterbury's congested ring road to go in both directions.
Site clearance work is likely to begin in September. Work to make the adjoining A28 ready will take place between autumn and Christmas.
The slip road itself will be built from Christmas until April or May, depending on the severity of the winter. June is a likely opening date for the new road.
Mr Farmer said: "From a practical engineering point the most sensible thing would have been to start in the spring and do the work over the spring and summer.
"However, in the present climate, with cuts in our budget and with no certainty about what next year's budget will we, we will be driven by that. Hence we will make the earliest start that we can achieve."
A BMX track and ball court are due to be built on because of the new slip road. At the meeting Councillor Alex Perkins, leader of the opposition Liberal Democrats in the council, asked whether replacement facilities had been budgeted for and designed.
He said: "When will the kids get their play area back? As you know, Thanington is an incredibly difficult area which we have transformed by occupying the young people and giving them stuff to do in a controlled environment overseen by staff."
The Kent County Council representatives confirmed there was money for a new track and ball court, it had already been designed and it would be built during the final phase of the project.
But there was bad news for drivers in Sturry: the long-hoped for eastern Canterbury bypass to alleviate traffic on the Sturry Road will NOT go ahead for the "foreseeable future" due to funding cuts.
The idea for the road, which Kent Highway Services is requested by many, is that it should go from the A28 to the north east of Canterbury to the A2 to the south.
This would mean drivers not wanting to stop in the city would not have to go through the city centre, the highly congested Sturry Road and the equally difficult New and Old Dover Roads in order to get to their destinations.
But at a meeting on Tuesday, July 6 members of the city and county council were told the plan would not go ahead in the foreseeable future.
A report written by Canterbury council officer Ruth Goudie said: "It is not likely in the foreseeable future that public funding will be available for major road building.
"An eastern Canterbury bypass would cost in the region of £87 million, even if it were possible to acquire the land.
"It is difficult to see how this could be funded and how it could be justified, bearing in mind the relatively small volume of traffic that would need to use the bypass."
