151
Stonehenge campaigners’ last-chance bid to save site from road tunnel (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 11 months ago by GreyShuck@feddit.uk to c/unitedkingdom@feddit.uk
41 comments fedilink hide all child comments

They are a disparate bunch. Archaeologists, environmentalists, historians, transport experts, countryside campaigners and druids.

But they will come together in the Strand in central London on Tuesday with a common purpose: to stop the bulldozers from, in their mind, wreaking havoc at one of the UK’s most iconic sites.

They will try to convince the high court over three days that the government’s plan to build a two-mile road tunnel close to the great circle of Stonehenge will permanently disfigure a unique and globally important landscape.

“It’s David and Goliath stuff,” said John Adams, the chair of the Stonehenge Alliance, which has fought against the tunnel and other road projects around the stones for more than 20 years. Though lots of disciplines are represented, they lack the heft of the government machine. “We’re up against the might of the Department for Transport, National Highways and so on. We’re a small organisation – mostly retired people. But the court case is critical. It’s the only thing keeping the earth diggers away,” he said.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] thehatfox@lemmy.world 11 points 11 months ago

I’ve heard some people claim the project would enhance the site by “hiding” the road. Completely ignoring the enormous amount of damage that would be done to area’s archeological significance.

[-] Nighed@sffa.community 3 points 11 months ago

What damage are you expecting?

[-] GBU_28@lemm.ee 5 points 11 months ago

There could be countless archeological objects in the surrounding area. So digging for no good reason is a bad idea.

Though I don't know if any specific stability risk, the vibrations and disturbance from construction is a non zero (but probably low) risk to the stability of the site.

Also roads create pollution, which in general should try to be kept as far as possible from natural or ancient archeological sites.

[-] Nighed@sffa.community 6 points 11 months ago

I think a lot of money has been spent looking at the area to confirm there isn't anything in its way - one of the other comments has a link about how everything was paused for 4 months when they did find something nearby.

If they can dig a tube tunnel through some of the places in london that they did for crossrail, this isn't going to be a problem.

There is already an A-road there, one that is normally practically stationary due to how the road narrows there. by sticking it in a tunnel it saves the immediate area from the pollution. Hopefully as we electrify more vehicles that will get even better too.

For reference - this is how close the road currently is - getting it underground will make the immediate area much nicer.

[-] sunbeam60@lemmy.one 2 points 11 months ago

And you expect them to carry on digging if they find invaluable archeological artefacts?

[-] GBU_28@lemm.ee 1 points 11 months ago

No but they would have damaged the site

[-] sunbeam60@lemmy.one 1 points 11 months ago

With great respect that’s not how works happen in archaeologically sensitive areas. There’ll be a full search done ahead of earth works.

[-] Nighed@sffa.community -3 points 11 months ago

If they dig under then it's not a problem

[-] floofloof@lemmy.ca 6 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Much of the value of the site lies underground. It's a rich area for archaeology where significant and surprising discoveries are still being made. This is part of what makes it a World Heritage Site.

[-] Nighed@sffa.community 3 points 11 months ago

It's on a big hill, the archeology isn't going to be more than 10m deep right? The only issue will therefore be at the entrance and exit?

I assume that they put the portals in 'empty' places and will have archeologists at the site to confirm they are not digging things up. (And have/are studying the area more)

this post was submitted on 11 Dec 2023
151 points (98.1% liked)

United Kingdom

4083 readers
241 users here now

General community for news/discussion in the UK.

Less serious posts should go in !casualuk@feddit.uk or !andfinally@feddit.uk
More serious politics should go in !uk_politics@feddit.uk.

Try not to spam the same link to multiple feddit.uk communities.
Pick the most appropriate, and put it there.

Posts should be related to UK-centric news, and should be either a link to a reputable source, or a text post on this community.

Opinion pieces are also allowed, provided they are not misleading/misrepresented/drivel, and have proper sources.

If you think "reputable news source" needs some definition, by all means start a meta thread.

Posts should be manually submitted, not by bot. Link titles should not be editorialised.

Disappointing comments will generally be left to fester in ratio, outright horrible comments will be removed.
Message the mods if you feel something really should be removed, or if a user seems to have a pattern of awful comments.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
tom@feddit.uk
GreatAlbatross@feddit.uk