Apart from the usual traffic chaos caused by too much traffic trying to squeeze its way from the dual carriageway east of Amesbury on to the single and 3-lane carriageway sections from Stonehenge westwards, we have had to contend with the unpredictability of Mother Nature and everything she could throw at us in the way of rain.
23rd December 2013 brought torrential rain and gales. Several folks attempting to negotiate the A303 described the conditions as the worst they have ever encountered in over 25 years - that says something about the nightmarish time many folks had. We decided that rather than pushing the campaign too hard, we would try and be helpful to those unfortunate enough to have to travel - so we spent the day listening to the radio, watching the Traffic England website and the traffic cameras and tweeting (See @rural warrior) using the #A303 hashtag.
Things couldn't get any worse - could they?
Well, on Christmas Eve, there were several problems. A multi-car pile-up and oil spill to the east of Winterbourne Stoke near Amesbury caused westbound chaos, the A36 had its own problems, as did many of the minor roads and then...
...then the River Yeo burst its banks between the turnings for the A37 and the A3088 in Somerset and flooded the A303. Result - traffic hell.
Well, drivers did what they always do in such circumstances and took the first diversionary route they could - straight in to more floods on the A37 and the A359. Journeys that should have taken minutes were taking several hours.
Thankfully, those problems have resolved...
...at least for the moment. The heavy rain predicted for today seems not to have materialised and we now have only light rain predicted for Monday. That's a great relief for us here in Winterbourne Stoke. At our local borehole in Tilshead up on Salisbury Plain the water level has risen 8 metres since Christmas Eve. That's right, 8 metres in three days. If we have a similar amount of rain to that we had on the 23rd in the next few days, then we could have springs breaking around the local villages a good month or two early and the risk of high land flooding. Did you know that this part of the world is infamous for its floods - you'd never have thought of that on Salisbury Plain - but the Great Till Flood of 1841 is so notorious that many universities worldwide study it.
We'll keep an eye open to the weather for the next few days...
...just in case. Then back to the campaign for 2014!
No comments:
Post a Comment