Peter Hunter tells the story of years of debate, planning and construction of the tunnel from Thursley's point of view. (See also 'Old A3 by the village' and 'A Walk Through the A3 Tunnel, May 2011'). All photos and Hindhead Project diagram are from Wikipedia.
The saga of the Hindhead tunnel dates back as far as 1948 when even then it was realised that the crossroad of the A3 arterial highway and the East-West A287 would cause trouble as traffic volumes increased. The matter became of increasing importance to the Ministry of Transport as by the early 70s the accident rate had risen by approximately 40%. A full study of the possible diversionary routes was undertaken between 1970 and 1976.
However, it was not until 1983 serious proposals began to emerge as to what the solution might be, with options of nine different routes. They became known as; The Red Route, the Yellow Route, etc. The Red Route was the one favoured by the Ministry of Transport as this was the one that was most financially viable and was declared as the ‘Preferred Route in 1988.
It was, however, the Red Route that posed the most serious threat to the Parish of Thursley as it included a major four lane viaduct crossing over the Smallbrook Valley and the ‘Devils Punch Bowl’. Within the borough of Waverley various groups began to emerge either in support or against a particular route and ones that had the greatest impact on respective local communities. Within Thursley a group was setup in 1988 in order to object to the Red Route that would decimate the tranquillity of The Devils Punch Bowl ‘An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty’ (AONB) as well as being a ‘SSSI’ (Site of Special Scientific Interest). The group was led by the farmer Pat Coles and monthly meetings were convened at Quirrell House in Pitch Place with the sole objective of campaigning against the Red Route.
The Proposed Red Route, with thanks to Sean Edwards
Much coverage was given to the objector groups by the local and national press as well as the BBC’s nightly South Today programme. During this period in the 80s Virginia Bottomley was the MP for South West Surrey, (now Baroness Bottomley of Nettlestone) and her husband, Peter Bottomley MP was the Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Department for Transport. It was at a meeting convened at Milford Village hall that in his address to the panel, chaired by Virginia Bottomley, that Peter Hunter announced that: The crossroads at Hindhead was the only set of traffic lights between Marselles and Dundee! Though this statement rested somewhat on poetic licence it certainly caught the attention of all those concerned and greased the wheels of parliamentary progress.
After much debate and two public enquiries, it was generally agreed that a tunnel under the Hindhead hill was the best option. Pat Coles was at that time a vocal member of the National Trust and managed to convince the Board of NT to give up the land that they owned to the North and South of the proposed tunnel. There was general agreement except that the National Trust insisted that their agreement was conditional on the land currently occupied by the existing A3 Trunk Road be reinstated to nature thus allowing the Hindhead Common and the Devil's Punch Bowl to be integrated again as it was pre-1826 when the main London to Portsmouth road was built around the Punch Bowl. Taking into consideration the reported adverse environmental impacts of the overhead routes the Government adopted the tunnel option of 2001 as being the preferred option.
Aerial view of the Devils Punch Bowl, before the closure of the old A3.
This proposed tunnel would be the most expensive of its type in the United Kingdom with the possible exception of the Limehouse Link tunnel. The final budget for the tunnel was some £371 million equating to £155,000 per metre. Further Public Enquiries were held throughout 2004 to hear local objections and to consider a late alternative proposal from a Mr Bernard North of Shropshire that was a variation of the Red Route and came even closer to the village of Thursley. Thursley Parish Council was represented by Peter Hunter at this enquiry held at the Olivetti Centre in Hindhead and the day was finally won, with the tunnel option coming out the winner.
The project was then delayed many times due to budgetary constraints under John Prescott’s Ministry of Finance but when London was awarded the 2012 Olympics political pressure was exerted when it became known that the sailing events would take place off the South Coast and the A3 would provide the main artery between London and Portsmouth and the teams would be subject to serious delays at Hindhead. The threat of a national embarrassment finally unleashed the necessary funds, and the project began in earnest in 2007 with the tunnelling aspect of the north portal commencing on 1st February 2008 with the south portal commencing some three months later on 14th May 2008. Whereas the noisy excavation works on the south portal worked 24/7 the south portal was restricted to a five-day week and limited operating hours due to the proximity of residential properties.
From the outset a tunnel was built rather than a cutting being dug to avoid spoiling an area of outstanding natural beauty and a Site of Special Scientific Interest, much of which is owned by the National Trust. Before digging started an environmental survey was carried out. Common lizards, adders and slow-worms found at Boundless Valley were relocated.
Environmental considerations resulted in many common lizards, adders and slow-worms found at Boundless Valley were relocated to National Trust land at Highcombe Edge while grass snakes were taken to Hurthill Copse. Tree felling was scheduled to minimise disruption to nesting birds and to other wildlife and in certain instances, animals such as dormice were removed to similar habitats elsewhere. In all some 2,173 tonnes of trees were removed to allow the construction of the North and South portals. After the works were completed, 200,000 trees were planted along the route of the old road. The restoration of the old road to nature removed a barrier that prevented the migration of ground-nesting birds, such as woodlarks and nightjars from one part of the nature reserve to the other.
Breakthrough was achieved on both tunnels on 26 February 2009, 250 m from the south portal with the resultant progress rate for the southern portion was 1.2 m/day and for the northern portion very much quicker at 3.9 m/day. The method chosen for the tunnel excavation was the New Austrian Tunnelling Method that used appropriately sized excavators rather than a boring machine that would have been too expensive considering the relatively short distance to be tunnelled compared to something like the Channel Tunnel. This method also saved some 20% of excavated spoil due to it having a flat bottom to the 11.6 metre diameter bore. In all some 737,000 cubic metres of soil was excavated from the two tunnel bores and was used to provide various embankments that were required throughout the project. The tunnel themselves represent 1.14 miles of the total project dual carriageway of 4 miles and is the longest road tunnel in the United Kingdom of which 2/3 is within the Parish of Thursley and can therefore claim to have hosted one of the country’s major civil engineering works.
Open Day, 14 May 2011
On Sunday, 14 May 2011, one and a half months before the tunnel was due to open, the contractors staged an open day when 7,000 pedestrians were able to walk the full length of the tunnel while local music groups performed at the north end of the tunnel. These included the Haslemere Town Band, who performed the "Devil's Punch Bowl March" as the first VIPs emerged from the tunnel. This had been composed especially for the occasion by 16-year-old Band member, Eric Foster. The formal opening ceremony itself was performed by the then Secretary of State for Transport, Phillip Hammond on 29 July 2011 an event to which the Chairman of Thursley Parish Council was invited to attend.
The old A3 returned to nature. This view is taken from close to Gibbet Hill, almost directly above the tunnel. October 2012
With all the fanfare complete and clean-up operations nearly finished the Thursley joys soon turned to cries of woe. Whereas the building of the twin bore tunnel was a great civil engineering success the same cannot be said for the electrical installations. The planned opening date of the tunnel was delayed by some two weeks when it was discovered that a major cable running the length of the tunnel was missing. During the first year of operation there were a number of closures often due to failures with the fire alarm systems and software issues. The net result of these closures meant that unprepared motorist travelling both north and south, sought to find their way around the closure and put their faith in their trusted sat-navs. For those travelling south this meant them coming through the centre of the village and continuing through Pitch Place. For those heading north they were brought along the same route in reverse leaving the A287 at Hindhead and heading down the Tilford Road. The Dye House Road and Pitch Place were never meant to cope with such a volume of traffic especially not HGVs. Chaos ensued. One dark and stormy night saw two Parish Councillors attempting to unlock a Spanish gas tanker heading north opposite a late night theatre coach heading south!
Thursley Parish Council argued extensively over a period of some eight years with the Highways Agency (later renamed Highways England) that better traffic management was needed and the black and yellow diversion symbols were totally inadequate at times of such crisis. Meeting after meeting took place between Highways England, Surrey County Council, Thursley Parish Council, Haslemere Town Council and Waverley Borough Council and Surrey Police Traffic Division. Many participants grew increasingly frustrated as the number of tunnel closures increased due to either vehicle accidents, false fire alerts, real vehicle fires and system software errors.
One of the main frustrations for those that had to endure the consequences of these frequent closures was the discovery that neither end of the tunnel was properly equipped with emergency contra flow arrangements that would allow a relatively free flow of traffic both north and south. It was not until 2022 that ‘Swift Gates’ were installed either end of the tunnel allowing a quick diversion of traffic from one bore to the other facilitating single lanes of contra-flow traffic. However, whenever there was a fire alert then all traffic had to be halted as a matter of prime safety.
These annoyances and inconveniences being imposed on local residents naturally raised the question as to why the old A3 road had not been kept open in order to cope with such emergencies ? The answer to which is many folds. Firstly, it was part of the agreement with the National Trust that the two commons would be joined by the abandonment of the old carriageway. Secondly, whereas it would have been relatively easy to manage north bound traffic it would have been very difficult without massive overhead viaducts to route the southbound traffic onto the western carriageway that was once the A3. And thirdly, it would have been very costly to maintain a major road for occasional use by cars and HGVs (Heavy Goods Vehicles). Safety and proper drainage being of the essence.
Report in the Farnham Herald on the inquiry coming to an end:
How the tunnel was constructed courtesy Hampshire News:
YouTube film 'Under The Devil's Punch Bowl - The Hindhead Tunnel Story':
And for those of you who would really like to get into the weeds, here is the Inspector's report (courtesy Peter Hunter):
