Progress report

Our most recent public consultation ran from Thursday 8 February to Monday 23 April 2018, and is now closed.

Thank you to everyone who responded.

Feedback from this public consultation will help us in our continued development of the scheme to the time when we submit our application for planning consent (known as a Development Consent Order) to the Planning Inspectorate.

The materials we shared during public consultation are all available in the 'Media & Documents' section below.

What’s next

The latest public consultation was the latest step in the legal and planning process to apply for a Development Consent Order. For more information about this, see our handy guide to the planning process.

Timeline

Community news

As part of the consultation process, we held a series of public drop-in events where you could find out about the scheme plans and talk to our project experts. We also made scheme information available at libraries and other community venues local to the scheme.

Thank you to everyone who came along to our events and submitted their responses.

You may well have followed earlier versions of this scheme. Some of these will have had different approaches and processes, or been governed by older legislation. We’ve put together a clear guide to the planning process we’re following: this explains exactly what happens, when, and how you get can get involved.

Why we need this scheme

As part of the most direct route between the South East and the South West, the A303 past Stonehenge plays a big part in the daily lives of tens of thousands of people, and for many it can be a daily struggle.

Average traffic flows along the single carriageway section between Amesbury and Berwick Down are twice what it was designed for, and the road is even busier in the summer tourist period.

The road bisects the Stonehenge part of the Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites World Heritage Site, running just 165 metres away from the most famous stone circle in the world. The road also cuts the village of Winterbourne Stoke in two.

An improved dual-carriageway, via a tunnel past Stonehenge, will help unlock economic growth in the South West by transforming journey reliability, increasing safety and improving connectivity with neighbouring regions, while protecting or enhancing the environment.

To make sure we achieve this, the project has four key objectives:

• Transport: to create a high quality reliable route between the South East and the South West that meets the future needs of traffic.
• Economic growth: to enable growth in jobs and housing by providing a free-flowing and reliable connection between the South East and the South West.
• Cultural heritage: to help conserve and sustain the World Heritage Site and to make it easier to reach and explore.
• Environment and community: to improve biodiversity and provide a positive legacy for nearby communities.

Roadworks and Events for England

The latest incident information for England's motorway and trunk routes provided by Highways England