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Stonehenge tunnel needs exit strategy

Plans for a tunnel past Stonehenge could reconnect the "extraordinary" ancient landscape which is severed by a busy road, heritage groups have said.

An aerial view of Stonehenge
Plans for a tunnel past Stonehenge could reconnect the landscape, which is severed by a busy road. (AAP)

Plans for a tunnel past Stonehenge could reconnect the "extraordinary" ancient landscape which is severed by a busy road, heritage groups say.

But the proposals for where the road would emerge west of the prehistoric stone circle needs a rethink as it is close to an important group of Neolithic and early Bronze Age ceremonial and funeral monuments, they warn.

Highways England is holding a public consultation on its plans for putting the A303 into a 2.9km dual carriageway tunnel where it passes the stones to cut congestion and improve the surroundings.

English Heritage and the National Trust, who manage the area, and government heritage body Historic England, say the plans will remove most of the existing damaging road and its traffic, which thunders past the stone circle.

But they've raised concerns about the western entrance of the tunnel, due to its proximity to, and impact on, the Normanton Down Barrow group, one of the key monuments for which the area is designated a World Heritage Site.


1 min read

Published

Source: AAP



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