I heard today that the go ahead has finally been given for the A453 to be widened between Nottingham and the M1 (Junction 24). Work should begin within 3 years.
Of course, the idiots in Clifton who have continually opposed it will continue to do so – of that you can be certain. This is in spite of the fact that the road section to be widened is the second most congested stretch of road in the whole country – behind only a certain section of the M25, so you can see how bad it is.
This whole fiasco has been going on for at least 20 years.
The A453 is a single carriageway road along almost its entire length. It is approximately 10 miles between Clifton and the M1, and yet from early afternoon traffic is at walking speed or less much of the time, so it can take an hour or more to get from Nottingham to the motorway. It is shocking that the whole project has taken so long to approve, and even more shocking that the idiots who opposed it have even been listened to – let alone listened to so many times. All objections should have been overruled at the outset, since the baseline issue is far more serious than the wishy-washy “it’ll divide our community” nonsense the objectors have been spouting (it’s all they have).
Almost without fail, there is a daily accident or breakdown which makes the problem a hundred times worse.
The only part of the project I don’t like is the 1,000-space car park and Park + Ride system they will build just outside Clifton. It will destroy green belt land. And the bloody tram is going up that way at some stage – everything has to make room for that useless waste of space.