Google Maps has leaked news that the A14 in Suffolk is being upgraded to motorway status.
Newspapers such as this have been under strict embargo not to publish the revelation until next week – but Google has jumped the gun.
Anyone looking at Google Maps today will clearly see A14(M) in blue along the length of the A14 from Newmarket in the west to Felixstowe in the east.
Motorists who are fed up with constant delays and poor surfacing on the A14, currently only a dual carriageway, will be delighted by the news.
Plans to be announced officially by the Department of Transport next week include making the A14 three lanes throughout, and forcing lorries to stick to the inside lane from 7am to 7pm each week day.
The upgrade, which will cost £790 million and be completed within two years, will bring the first ever motorway to Suffolk, so often seen as a transport backwater.
It will reduce travel time and also help the local business infrastructure.
Felixstowe Port, in particular, will benefit from the news.
Got to love the Suffolk Gazzette bringing the news that matters to those daft buggers in Suffolk.
And a great scoop for their Transport Editor Laurie Hall.
And then lane closures one week later for remedial work! I’m a tad confused however as to why a lorry overtaking ban should apply to a three lane motorway? Surely a large proportion of freight on that stretch will be FTX bound (or away from it), so why engineer in hold ups even before construction has started?
I wouldn’t hold your breath. I have an A to Z map of South Wales from the early 90’s that shows the proposed motorway that was going to be built over Llanwern to relieve the traffic through Newport.
tachograph:
You do know that the Suffolk Gazette is a spoof newspaper don’t you
Don’t tell 'em Pike.
Blimey any spoof worth its salt would have said upgraded to 4 lanes and no point in trucks overtaking anyway even if they could.Because it will have a camera enforced variable maximum 50 mph limit as part of its ‘smart’ motorway status.
making HGVs stick to the inside lane from 7am to 7pm is wrong,the reason is I have noticed a lot of drivers like plodding along at 50mph lately,a lot of us still do 56mph to 60mph[if your vehicle is capable of 60]why should we be forced to sit at around 40mph behind the plodders[40 to keep a safe distance]not right,my vehicle does 56mph,thats what I like to sit at,a lot of drivers will be overtaking and ignoring the signs,seen it happen many a time on that uphill section of the A34 towards oxford.
