Reader's letter: Dualling not the solution

Predictably, Newark people who are as fed up as I am with traffic congestion on the bypass are in favour of the new dualling.

A few moments reflection, however, shows that what we are being sold by the Highways Agency is not all it seems because the focus is not on Newark and its needs, even though it is being sold to us this way.

At busy times there is certainly annoying congestion between roundabouts but this is not down to the lack of a dual carriageway but to the presence of the roundabouts themselves.

Simply replacing the cattle market and Farndon roundabouts with flyovers would ease the present problems immeasurably, even without dualling.

Just think what dualling requires.

Firstly, it effectively consists of the construction of a completely new road alongside the old one with all the problems that entails.

Secondly, there is the enormous increase in cost and complications due to the need for new bridges over the river and the railway.

And then there’s the pollution, not just from the queuing cars which will multiple exponentially during an extended building period with its inevitable cameras and speed limits, but from the over-long construction work itself and material extraction to double the width of the road.

Highways England claims that its intention is to speed freight traffic to the Humber ports so why is it proposing to stop this traffic, along with us, by putting traffic lights, rather than flyovers, on the Farndon and Winthorpe?

A17 traffic will have to cope with yet another roundabout just to reach the existing two roundabouts, which are not fit for purpose even now.

Updating these roundabouts to the way they should have been in the first place would improve things immeasurably for Newark, but they are hardly to be touched as Newark and its needs are not the focus here.

It would be quicker and easier on the people of Newark’s patience to just upgrade the junctions and tolerate the few minutes delay due to it still being a single carriageway. At least the traffic would still be flowing that way. ­— I. THOMSON, Collingham.