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The Alton Bypass

IanB

IanB

TS Member
So with the government today announcing its big capital spending plans, and one of the items been "funding for improvements to the A50 around Uttoxeter, in Staffordshire, to start no later than 2015-16" could this be the perfect time for Alton Towers, Staffordshire Moorland Council and JCB to work togather to successfully get the Bypass built?

It sounds like this work is designed to remove the two roundabouts to improve the flow of traffic, so nothing directly benefiting Alton Towers, but if ever there was an opportunity to make the Bypass road happen, now is the time for everyone to push for it.

Link: BBC
Link: Local MP
 
In theory yes it would be a really good time to try and sort out a bypass. However in reality I don't see it happening at all. I think Towers have made it quite clear that they have no interest in building a bypass in the immediate future.

I'd imagine there could be quite a bit of disruption getting to Towers when this work does take place though. To remove the roundabout would require significant changes to the two junctions, I'm not sure how they'd actually do it! Congestion around there is bad at busy times though.

:)
 
Not only do I very much doubt it EVER happening, but I hope it doesn't...

I absolutely adore the drive from the A50 to AT... It rarely gets that busy anyway.
 
"By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail"

This is my favoured route to the park as well, but I have queued from just after the McDonalds round about on numerous occasions before. This might not be the case everyday, but on event days, it can cause issues. If Alton Tower continues to (please don't laugh) improve and attract more customers, the issue of traffic arriving at the park will only get worse.

I also think if the Bypass was built, there would be nothing to stop you from continuing to use your current route.

The benefits of having a Bypass built are not just for the guests as well, but the Park (Merlin's) reputation would be improved, and future additions to the park, which would otherwise be rejected, could be approved.

Ian
 
So they plan to remove two roundabouts after putting two in... That's what I've come to concur from the info I've seen here?!
 
Another article here from the Stoke Sentinel, with a quote from Mark Kerrigan (emphasis mine):

Mark Kerrigan, park operations and development director at Alton Towers Resort, added: "The A50 is a vital corridor for guests travelling to the Alton Towers Resort and, as we expand our full year offering, it is becoming even more so.

"We therefore welcome the Government's decision to invest in upgrading this key infrastructure around Uttoxeter."
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Very interesting quote from Mr Kerrigan there! It certainly seemed to be hinting that they will be winter openings. I personally do think that we will see a larger winter offering sometime in the next couple of years, what with CBeebies Land opening.

:)
 
Jordan said:
as we expand our full year offering, it is becoming even more so.
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I think the Bypass should be an even higher priority, some of those back roads can be very dangerous in winter conditions.

If other European Parks can make the investment in local infrastructure, there is no reason why Merlin can not as well.

Ian
 
They really need to expand winter offerings. First starting with having the park open for day guests. Just looking at Facebook and Twitter shows that there is a market out there for winter offerings.

All they have to do is have small offerings like Feb half term. Do it on selected weekends throughout November/December, have some Christmas street entertainment (brass band for example) and a small selection of rides/attractions open with a rollercoaster open if at all possible (it doesn't get too cold during November/December to prevent this happening) - although aiming solely at the family market will probably be more wise as a starting point.



Main problem with the bypass is that Alton Towers will not pay out for the full cost of it. That was one of the main reasons for it being shelved in the first place. Unless the council will partly fund it then I highly doubt Alton/Merlin will ever bother with making it a reality.
 
The thing is the bypass really won't be making any money for Alton Towers, it would cost millions and millions of pounds to build, and I imagine quite a few years to plan and then build.

People don't think "We won't bother going to Alton Towers, as the roads are a bit narrow near the park", the new road wouldn't really cut any journey time either, as it doesn't take that long to get from the A50 to the park. Not enough time to justify the cost of a new road.
 
Rob said:
Very interesting quote from Mr Kerrigan there! It certainly seemed to be hinting that they will be winter openings. I personally do think that we will see a larger winter offering sometime in the next couple of years, what with CBeebies Land opening.

:)
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The issue is even now it's not the A50 that stops people getting to Towers when it snows, it's the local roads. They need to get traffic away from the villages, their main issue (other than JCB won't sell the land as it is right next to their owners mansion) is it will be hard to get a road past Denstone and you can't send ALL of Towers traffic through it, it's bad enough half of it goes through there.
 
It's defiantly a possibility if towers expands a bit more maybe they need to pull in more people for it to work instead of only a hand full of days
 
The investment would be massive & considering £18m is considered a 'high' investment (The Smiler), that figure would be a drop in the ocean compared to the required funding for this bypass.

It really is only events that cause long delays, the sharp bend in Alton (with the wall) is notorious for getting buses/coaches stuck as they need both sides of the road to turn, and when their is heavy traffic, this causes the road to just, well, stop.

I quite honestly have only been in a que to get in on 31st October 2010. (We were queuing from the hump-back-bridge just after you turn towards Alton), but considering how many times I visit, this is certainly not a regular occurrence.

Leaving the park, fireworks. All fireworks events you que to leave the park, but there is a steady flow. The main issue is actually getting out the car-parks, once past the gates, there is a steady flow and the roads certainly can cope well enough.

Basically, I really don't think the bypass will happen unless its publicly funded. (You'd be looking at at least £¼ BILLION!?)
 
you wouldn't be looking at1/4 billion it's less than 5 miles between Denstone and the Resort, even if you built a motorway it would only cost £150,000,000 nearly half your estimate. As this will be a standard road (maybe at a push 4 lanes) it would come in much below.
 
Dave said:
you wouldn't be looking at1/4 billion it's less than 5 miles between Denstone and the Resort, even if you built a motorway it would only cost £150,000,000 nearly half your estimate. As this will be a standard road (maybe at a push 4 lanes) it would come in much below.
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Thanks Dave, I had no idea on what the cost would be, hence the question mark, so thanks for getting us nearer to the mark. Even if it was £100m, that's nearly 6 Smiler-scale investments to put it into perspective.

Maybe the actual road building would cost £100m (approx) , but wouldn't the land be expensive and difficult to work with ( hills and valleys etc? ) Would it require bridges/tunnels?
 
Isn't it a major problem that all of those fields between Denstone and the park are probably owned by someone? I know there's a rather large cattle farm using fields around there, and they will be very much against such an investment. I mean they don't have to give permission to allow building do they? It's their land after all.
 
Most of the land is owned by JCB, who probably won't part with it willingly as the owners mansion is in close proximity. At least it used to be.
 
When it comes to farmers land, wouldn't it be acquired with a compulsory purchase order?

It's usually the same for whenever a new road like the one that's been proposed here is built and it's only done so long as it's done with the public's interests in-mind first (in this case, it'd obviously be for if the traffic does become too disruptive for those that live around the park, though easier access would also be beneficial to Alton Towers and possibly JCB as well).

The farmers would still be paid for the land required, of course.


I've no idea about the land owned by JCB though.
 
It's JCB that won't sell, and you then end up with the risk of upsetting the areas biggest employer, something I'm not sure the council would be keen on.
 
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