Related pages

• Background
• Why a road improvement is proposed
• Choice of route
• Junction options
• Consultation arrangements
• Responses
• Analysis of the responses
• Partnering approach
• The views of the Highways Agency
• The decision of the secretary of state
• What happens next?
• Further information
• Map

A303 Stonehenge (incorporating the Winterbourne Stoke Bypass) Preferred Route Announcement June 1999

Choice of route

Since 1991 over 50 alternative routes have been considered. The main planning and environmental constraints that influenced the selection of the route are shown on the plan.

The route shown at public consultation in January 1999 included a dual carriageway starting at the end of the existing dual carriageway at Berwick Down west of Winterbourne Stoke. It followed the existing road before curving north to pass the corner of Scotland Lodge Farm, avoiding the Parsonage Down National Nature Reserve and Site of Special Scientific Interest and an archaeological enclosure and ring ditch. It then curved to cross the B3083 and River Till about 250m north of the village and followed a dry valley to rejoin the line of the existing road west of Longbarrow crossroads.

East of Longbarrow crossroads the route dualled the existing road with the new carriageway to the south, to minimise the impact on archaeology and the National Trust land and use the existing roadway. The line moves to the south of the existing road for about 600m at Stonehenge Bottom to achieve an acceptable curve. The section from 300m west of the Wilsford Down Byway to Stonehenge Cottages is in a 2km cut and cover tunnel. The new dual carriageway joined the existing dual carriageway (Amesbury Bypass) approximately 1km west of Countess roundabout.