A55 is our own Highway to Hell.POOR old Ieuan Wyn Jones Ieuan Wyn Jones (born 22 May 1949) is leader of Plaid Cymru, Deputy First Minister in the Welsh Assembly Government and Member of the National Assembly for Wales for the Ynys Môn constituency. He was Member of the UK parliament for Ynys Môn constituency from 1987-2001. . Who'd be transport minister in a country that still has a road system emulating communist Albania's infamous National Highway? While work to improve the tortuous A470 north-south link road inches on, and is likely to be completed just after they start building motorways on Mars, it's going from bad to worse on the A55. Mind you, the poor thing never had much chance once such a hash was made of it on the Welsh Office See Also Council of Wales The Welsh Office (Swyddfa Gymreig) was a department in the Government of the United Kingdom with responsibilities for Wales. drawing board in the 1970s. It would've been better off stillborn. So much for the road hailed at the time by our colonial masters in the Conservative Party as the "Highway to Opportunity". Highway to hell, more like it. Considering it's also part of Euroroute E22, linking Holyhead with Ishim in Russia via Amsterdam, Malmo, Riga and Moscow, I can't help but wonder what our European cousins feel about it. To think that it left the drawing board as a dual carriageway dual carriageway Noun Brit, Austral & NZ a road with a central strip of grass or concrete to separate traffic travelling in opposite directions Noun 1. not a fully-fledged motorway defies belief. It still features deadly roundabouts, a single carriageway Single carriageway is the British designation for the most common type of road; one with no physical separation (central reservation) between opposing flows of traffic. section over the Britannia Bridge, and two-lane tunnels that preclude ever turning it into a motorway. It's not unknown for pedestrians to saunter across it whistling "Sosban Fach". But we're stuck with it. So why is the Senedd, under our Ieuan's chaotic wing, intent on causing even more bedlam than that bestowed on us in the first place? No wonder he flies to Cardiff. Speed limits are to be cut to a crawling 40mph for huge stretches, which should fill the coffers for the speed cameras team's Christmas ball. But if you think that's bad enough, read on. Whole sections of it are to be closed for 20 minutes at a time until March next year.. All this apparently to enable the safety barriers to be checked and the grass verges to be trimmed. Have they no common sense? Can't they do this work at night? And while they're at it, concrete over the grass verges. Little wonder Paul Claydon, North Wales' assistant chief fire officer, was nonplussed non·plus tr.v. non·plused also non·plussed, non·plus·ing also non·plus·sing, non·plus·es also non·plus·ses To put at a loss as to what to think, say, or do; bewilder. n. on hearing the news: He commented: "We're well versed in dealing with road closures." I bet you are.. CAPTION(S): An all too familiar sight for A55 users... and worse to come |
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