Nailbourne Valley. It was feared
that an embankment of this height
might appear to wall off the valley.
To reduce its apparent height, the
ground has been built up on each
side of the new road so that it now
appears to travel across the valley
on a shallow embankment. To the
west, in the vicinity of Bekesbourne
Road the reverse procedure has
been adopted. Here the cutting for
the new road has been extended
out into the valley by building up
the ground to mask nearby houses
from traffic noise from the bypass.

Before these landscape works
could be carried out the existing
Topsoil and Subsoil were stripped-
off and stacked separately nearby.
Surplus chalk and clay from the
excavated cuttings along the route
were deposited to reshape the
land, and the Subsoil and Topsoil
were then respread and seeded.
This land will soon be returned to
grazing. in this way, farming land
taken for the bypass has been kept
to minimum in the fill areas and this
policy has been followed in the cut
areas, where side slopes have been
kept as steep as possible to keep
land acquisition to the minimum.

This results in steeper slopes in the
deepest cutting where more stable
chalk is penetrated.

Five bridges were necessary to
separate through traffic from the
local traffic, farm vehicles and
pedestrians. All are in concrete
with particular attention paid to the
surface finishes. These bridges
together with the 2% miles of new
bypass dual carriageways and the
1% miles of new carriageway
towards Barham cost £3; million,
and took twenty-two months to
build.

The historic village of Bridge has
suffered increasingly over the years
as the traffic along the A2 has
built up, together with its associated
noise, vibrations and fumes. The
inconvenience to the villagers has
been shared by drivers who have
been hampered by the steep hills
which flank the village to the north
and the south, and the congested
main street with buildings abutting
the highway. Now the village will
be able to breathe more freely again,
and the A2 traffic can travel
unchecked and in safety on a new
purpose built road.


Bridge Bypass

The opening of Bridge Bypass today marks a
further step in the plan to improve the A2 trunk
road progressively between the eastern end of
the M2 at Brenley Corner and Dover. With the
notable exception of a bypass to Canterbury, all
stages of the programme are either completed or
currently under construction.

The bypass has been designed by the County
Council's Highways and Transportation Department
under the direction of the County Surveyor (Mr.
Allen Smith) acting as agents for the Department
of the Environment (Regional Controller Mr.

Phillip Bays).

Before detailed design of the scheme could
start, extensive investigations werelnecessary into
alternative routes, the geology of the area, the
future traffic loads for the road, the divisive effect
upon local farms, and the impact of the new road
on the local environment. A public exhibition
illustrating the proposals was held locally in
November 1972, followed by a public enquiry into
objections to the new road in May ‘I973. During

 

The line of the bypass is becoming apparent as teams of
excavators and lorries move chalk’ in April 1975.

Highland Court Accommodation Bridge is shown in June

1975 taking up the shape of the temporary support scaffold.

this time detailed design was under way for the roads
and bridges for the new route. Over 300 drawings were
prepared for the contract and competitive tenders were
invited in Spring 1974.

' Mears Construction Limited, who have been carrying
out work for the County Council since the 1930's, won
the contract, and construction started in August 1974.
As the momentum of the work built up on site, the
contractor began to move ahead of the planned
programme, in spite of difficulties such as unexploded
bombs, and the unpredictable Nailbourne. Between late
Autumn 1974 and Spring 1975 twice the normal
amount of rain fell, and the Nailbourne began flowing
above ground for the first time this decade causing
extensive flooding of the works in the valley. It was
evident that the valley would be waterlogged for some
time to come, and wide ranging revisions to the
construction programme were necessary.

In addition to the Bypass to Bridge, the contract
included the dualling and improvement of the existing
A2 between the Southern end of the bypass at
Coldharbour Lane and Barham Cross Roads. Along this
length earlier excavations by the Canterbury
Archaelogical Society located numerous Saxon graves
and the Society have kept a watchful eye on the
construction work where other relics of the past have
been found including a flint arrow and pieces of
pottery.

A feature of the project is the landscape treatment in
Bifron’s Park, where the road is some 35 feet above the