National Highways’ proposals were initially granted consent in 2020, but following a legal challenge, the High Court ruled against the decision-making process. Over the past two years, National Highways has carried on regardless, procuring contractors and redrafting its development consent order (DCO) application.
There is now a six-week period for opponents to instigate a legal challenge.
Whatever happens next in the courts, construction will not be starting soon. The project is not in the budget for the current road investment strategy period (RIS2), which runs from 2020 to 2025. It is listed in RIS3, for projects starting between 2026 and 2030.
The A303 Stonehenge upgrade includes:
- eight miles of dual carriageway between Amesbury and Berwick Down
- a tunnel at least two miles long underneath the World Heritage Site, closely following the existing A303 route, but a further 50 metres away from the Stonehenge monument, avoiding important archaeological sites, and avoiding intrusion on the view of the setting sun from the stones during the winter solstice
- a new bypass to the north of the village of Winterbourne Stoke
- junctions with the A345 and A360 either side of the World Heritage Site.
Last year a £1.25bn main works contract was awarded to the MORE joint venture, comprising FCC Construcción, WeBuild and BeMo Tunnelling. Costain and Mott MacDonald will be National Highway’s ‘delivery assurance partner’, overseeing construction in the manner of what used to be called resident engineer.
The construction phase is scheduled to take five years to complete and ahead of the main work, Wessex Archaeology will carry out archaeological mitigation work, while Octavius (formerly Osborne Infrastructure) will undertake preliminary work, including the reconfiguration of local authority roads.
National Highways project director Derek Parody said: “It is a scheme objective to conserve and enhance the World Heritage Site and this is being achieved through close collaborative working with heritage groups, including English Heritage, National Trust, Historic England and the independent A303 Scientific Committee.
“The scheme will not only sustain the Outstanding Universal Value of the Stonehenge landscape, it will also have a beneficial effect, and extensive archaeological studies and assessments have been undertaken to provide evidence of the benefits that the scheme will deliver for the World Heritage Site.
“The decision represents a major milestone, not only for us as the project team but for all those who have supported this project over a number of years; our stakeholders, the heritage bodies, local and regional businesses and indeed local communities.
“We’re currently analysing the detailed changes within the development consent order and assessing timescales but we anticipate being able to start preparatory work in 2024.”
Business interests are broadly supportive of the project; heritage and environmental groups are split.
Federation of Small Businesses transport chair David Tucker said: “This is very welcome news. Upgrading the single carriageway sections of the A303 is key to supporting the south-west economy, particularly as the only alternative route via the M4 and M5 into the region is already heavily used.”
Rachael Webb, Wiltshire Team Leader for Natural England, said: “We’ve worked with National Highways to get some really great outcomes for wildlife from the A303 Stonehenge scheme. The verges and embankments will make for a flower-rich, six-mile long, butterfly highway and large areas of species-rich chalk grassland will be created.”
However, Stonehenge Alliance president Tom Holland, a broadcaster representing a group that includes CPRE and Friends of the Earth, said: “Today, a supposedly Conservative government plans to blow upwards of £2bn, at a time when the country’s finances are in a shocking state, on a monstrous white elephant of a road development that will permanently disfigure Britain’s most significant and sacred prehistoric landscape. The decision of Mark Harper to green-light the building of a tunnel through a stretch of the World Heritage Site that surrounds Stonehenge is as inexplicable as it is disgraceful. Certainly, no-one can be in any doubt that the scheme will inflict “permanent, irreversible harm” on a landscape that is the supreme icon of British archaeology.”
Transport Action Network campaigner Rebecca Lush said: "Just as the Climate Change Committee has recommended that new roads should be reviewed, Mark Harper seems to be in denial by giving the go-ahead to the Stonehenge dual carriageway through the World Heritage Site. National Highways admit the scheme would increase carbon emissions by 2.5 million tonnes over its lifetime at a time when we need to rapidly reduce emissions. This decision flies in the face of the evidence on climate change and the recommendations of the climate change committee, and will devastate the World Heritage Site."
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