New south Ely road bypass will enable removal of level crossing at Ely station

[Ploughman]

I was at ELY last week and noticed the level crossing to the North of the station seemed very busy with HGV traffic queuing while cars take the underpass.

Is a deeper underpass an option? or is the water table too high for that?

Is a bypass possible?

 

[dk1]

I was at ELY last week and noticed the LC to the North of the station seemed very busy with HGV traffic queuing while cars take the underpass.

Is a deeper underpass an option? or is the water table too high for that?

Is a bypass possible?

Work is about to start on a new bypass for Ely. Been on the cards for years and is very
controversial.

Although the road network grinds to a halt & traffic snarls that isn't anything to do with Ely North Junction upgrades and not something that bothers the railway apart from the odd bridge strike. Going lower isn't an option.

 

[30907]

The LC at the station is normally only used by LGVs, but yes, the water table would be an issue. No doubt there was a good reason when the Ely-Littleport bypass was built NOT to include a link over the railway for the Soham road....

 

[snowball]

I was at ELY last week and noticed the LC to the North of the station seemed very busy with HGV traffic queuing while cars take the underpass.
Is this the issue?
Is a deeper underpass an option? or is the water table too high for that?
Bypass possible?

Construction is just starting or about to start on the A142 Ely southern bypass which when finished in 2018 will remove a lot of the traffic from the level crossing and underpass near the station.

http://www.elystandard.co.uk/news/work_to_start_on_36_million_ely_bypass_in_january_1_4821586

Currently long tail backs can be caused in the area near the station as Heavy Goods Vehicles are forced to use a level crossing which is due to be closed more often due to rail improvements.

Residents also see solving the bottleneck as a top priority as outlined in the newly adopted Transport Strategy for East Cambridgeshire

The new route will bypass the railway level crossing and underpass by providing a new link between Stuntney Causeway and Angel Drove to the south of the city.

https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/r...rking/transport-projects/ely-southern-bypass/

The Ely southern bypass is a new road connecting the A142 at Angel Drove to Stuntney Causeway, including bridges over the railway line and the River Great Ouse and its floodplains.

The Bypass will ease congestion in and around Ely by providing a new link between Stuntney Causeway and Angel Drove to the south of the city. The new route will remove the need for heavy goods vehicles to use the railway level crossing, and avoid an accident-prone low-bridge.

 

[bspahh]

Work is about to start on a new bypass for Ely. Been on the cards for years & very contraversial. Although the road network grinds to a halt & traffic snarls that isn't anything to do with Ely North Junction & not something that bothers the railway apart from the odd bridge strike. Going lower isn't an option.

Anything is possible. However, in the consultation process for the Ely Southern bypass, digging out the underpass was quoted as being a low cost option. You can dig a tunnel underneath a busy railway, and you can dig near a river, but trying to do both, on a limited budget, sounds like a recipe for disaster to me.

At the moment, the traffic disruption is bad, but manageable. However, there are plans to increase the frequency of the freight trains between Felixstowe and Nuneaton, which would mean that the level crossing would be down for 40 minutes a hour, which would be pretty bad.

The Fen Line User Association http://www.flua.org.uk/ is a good site for news on the Ely North junction.

 

[dk1]

Anything is possible. However, in the consultation process for the Ely Southern bypass, digging out the underpass was quoted as being a low cost option. You can dig a tunnel underneath a busy railway, and you can dig near a river, but trying to do both, on a limited budget, sounds like a recipe for disaster to me.

At the moment, the traffic disruption is bad, but manageable. However, there are plans to increase the frequency of the freight trains between Felixstowe and Nuneaton, which would mean that the level crossing would be down for 40 minutes a hour, which would be pretty bad.

The Fen Line User Association http://www.flua.org.uk/ is a good site for news on the Ely North junction.

Getting rid of the silly double blocking would unlock some extra capacity at ENJ at a stroke. No need for it with all trains TPWS fitted.

 

[bspahh]

There are a couple of updates on the progress of the Ely Southern Bypass on the LinkedIn account for a foreman at VolkerFitzpatrick:

This is from a couple of weeks ago, pouring the concrete for the last of the columns for the railway bridge:
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6343902725432049664

This is another pier from last week:
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6348600371446849536

This is a video from a drone over the river crossing:
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6348900096272269312

 

[eastdyke]

There are a couple of updates on the progress of the Ely Southern Bypass on the LinkedIn account for a foreman at VolkerFitzpatrick:

This is from a couple of weeks ago, pouring the concrete for the last of the columns for the railway bridge:
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6343902725432049664

This is another pier from last week:
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6348600371446849536

This is a video from a drone over the river crossing:
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6348900096272269312

Thanks for that.
Any news of quantified cost over-runs yet?
Very interested because issues in this area may impact on solutions for rail works under consideration.

 

[bspahh]

Thanks for that.
Any news of quantified cost over-runs yet?
Very interested because issues in this area may impact on solutions for rail works under consideration.

https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/r...rking/transport-projects/ely-southern-bypass/ says that it "is expected to open late summer 2018." There was a delay of a few months last summer when they realised that they would need to replace an overhead power line with an underground one. I haven't heard anything about the budget.

 

[eastdyke]

https://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/r...rking/transport-projects/ely-southern-bypass/ says that it "is expected to open late summer 2018." There was a delay of a few months last summer when they realised that they would need to replace an overhead power line with an underground one. I haven't heard anything about the budget.

Oh dear
Seems like something that an astute young person with spatial awareness might have spotted
Will watch the space.