sign the e-petition for a Leeds-Langley "bypass"

[Deleted]

Oct 30, 2015 8:14:37 GMT daveu said:

Oct 30, 2015 1:22:41 GMT @johndaubneyslegs said:

Talking of bypasses - I was at the ground tonight (buying my supporters' club membership, as you ask), and chancing my life on the roundabout in the rush-hour reminded me why that's there.

No, they didn't build it just to give easy access to the stadium, or to Chav Towers, it was actually built as part of the intended 'third bridge', which was going to cross the river roughly where the ground is now, cut across what is now Whatman Park, bridge the Medway Valley line, skirt the girls' grammar (see what I did there...), bridge the main line, and take over Leafy Lane, on it's way to the Queens Road junction with the A20.

It would have saved a lot of time and hassle for anyone from the North and East of town needing to get to the A20 (or even the A26, if they'd improved Queens Road at the same time), but with two railway bridges and a river bridge, it would also have cost a fortune - possibly one of the most expensive roads, per kilometre, ever built outside the big cities. In the end, they didn't build it, but the last two houses at the MGGS end of Buckland Road, which would have had to be knocked down, were compulsorily purchased and stood empty for years.

An 'intersting' scheme from our point of view, though - had it been built, it would have actually linked the old and new MUFC sites together - not only preventing the Gallagher from ever being built, but also taking a slice out of the old ground. Funny to think that, if we were still at London Road, you would have been able to walk directly to the ground on the new road, crossing the site of the (never built) Gallagher on the way.

Not the first river crossing project never to come to fruition. The reason Grace Avenue is dualled is because it was originally intended to be part of a Maidstone ring road, crossing the river to link Allington with where Ringlestone is now. This was back in the 1920s, and there have been a few attempts to revive the scheme over the years, but with the development of Ringlestone and the Poplar Grove area it is no longer possible.

Interesting. I've often wondered why there was so much space in Grace Avenue, but just assumed it was some sort of estate design, as Palmer Road and Buckland Lane are similar.

The council estate near my primary school had a similarly odd wide road (two roads, separated by grass, as in Grace Avenue), and it never occurred to me that that was more than just enlightened post-war planning. But when I went back 40 years later, I discovered it had become a duel-carriageway by-pass!