Soapbox

Ron airs his views on local planners and the new flyover

Our New Flyover

So now we have our new flyover at Hardwick. What we are all wondering is if it will solve the problem of congestion on the roundabout. On a weekend in summer there is a large amount of traffic coming from the west along the A17/A47 and they nearly all want to go to the north coast along the A148/A149. This traffic produces a long tailback as they try to enter the Hardwick roundabout. The flyover will do little to help that. It also seems rather surprising to require those approaching the roundabout from King's Lynn, or along the A149, and wishing to go westwards on the A47, to take the first exit and enter the A47 by way of a second roundabout, where they have to cross the east bound traffic on the A47. I assume this was done with the aim to remove traffic from the Hardwick roundabout as soon as possible, but will they take that first exit? Very soon after the flyover was opened I noticed big trucks entering the roundabout from the A149, and from Lynn, that were ignoring the signs and driving round the roundabout to take the exit for the A47 nearest to the A10. On the same occasion I was disappointed to see that, whilst there was considerable congestion on the roundabout, the traffic flow over the flyover was quite light which suggested that the flyover will not remove so very much traffic.

Ron Watts