THE suggestion by Timothy Oats in yesterday’s Oxford Mail that the A34 be replaced by a six-lane motorway has been made before - but how?
The A34 is essentially a series of bypasses, built to take traffic away from villages that it originally passed trough. This series of local roads suddenly became a major trunk road when it was extended to connect with the M40.
I can’t see a way of using the present road as a motorway, and it’s very rare to see A roads being so converted. What one would have to consider is a completely new south coast Midlands motorway, but what government would consider that, and what route would it take? I agree that the major problem is the volume of HGVs from Southampton docks, a problem that the Government is trying to overcome by electrifying the railways.
I think we shall have to wait to see what effect this electrification will have, but, I have this gut feeling that it will amount to very little.
The sooner the rail electrification is completed the better and, in the meantime, we shall have to make do with tinkering along the length of the existing A34.
DERRICK HOLT
Fortnam Close
Headington Oxford
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