Tackling environmental impacts of a new bypass
Team,
Firstly, we are doing really well. On the back of just 14 Facebook posts we now have nearly 2000 supporters. Please do spread the word and let people know about the petition. Feel free to make your own posters, paper petitions etc and get the word out in any way you see fit!
I just wanted to pick up on something those who might be opposed to any new bypass have asked - how do you tackle the environmental impacts?
We cannot pretend that there won’t be any environmental impacts of such a project, but we should not forget either that these days mitigation and compensation is very, very strict.
Take the A555 and the Chapel Bypass routes… They were chosen to run through already farmed agricultural and grazing land, to minimise impacts on any natural habitats. So for example on the A555 just 0.08 hectares of ancient woodland was removed. Amazing for a 14km dual carriageway road.
‘Beneficial impacts’ were also created, and for the first time in decades brand new hedgerows, semi-natural broad-leaved woodland, and grassland were actually added, not taken away. For every pond removed two more were created and consequently the natural population of newts and other amphibians is expected to increase, where previously they were in decline. These will all be funded and monitored for decades to come.
To date, no one has mentioned air quality as an objection to a new bypass. This would be difficult as again looking at the latest local example, the A555, it has seen dramatic falls in pollution. East – west traffic using the new route across South Manchester versus the old routes mean that Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) concentrations are expected to fall in 79% of receptors, 2% will be unchanged and 19% will experience an increase. You can guess where the increases are expected to be.
Our road, being in the middle of two existing Bypasses would be highly unlikely to cause any more bottlenecks with their associated pollution. Air quality should dramatically improve as traffic flows more freely. Furthermore, although routes are not yet under discussion it is highly unlikely that any Bypass would be as close to dense areas of population, schools, nurseries etc as the current A6 is.
Some have said that the argument a new Bypass will dramatically cut pollution is an academic exercise as we will all soon be in non-polluting electric vehicles. Gosh, I hope they are right! But this doesn’t help traffic volume and road safety issues. Commentators predict electric vehicle usage will actually increase traffic.
Further into the future, autonomous vehicles will add to traffic volume as they start to eat into public transport and become accessible to none drivers – schoolchildren for example. This only goes to highlight the need for purpose built modern roadways, leaving older roads such as the A6 the domain of local traffic, pedestrians, cyclists. Maybe even trees, verges, plazas ... We can dream...
For now...
Simon