English Heritage is today (31 January 2012) delighted that Wiltshire Council has made the Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) for the section of the A344 between Airman's Corner, the site of the new Visitor Centre, and Byway 12.
Together with a Stopping Up Order on the section of the road that runs past Stonehenge almost touching the Heel Stone that was granted earlier by the Department of Transport, the A344 will effectively be closed to traffic.
The TRO, supported by English Heritage, National Trust, the RSPB and other organisations, is essential for the long term management of the Stonehenge and Avebury World Heritage Site and for English Heritage to implement the Stonehenge Environmental Improvements Project.
Loraine Knowles, Stonehenge Director at English Heritage, said: "Wiltshire Council's decision means that the permissions and orders required to proceed with the Stonehenge project are now all in place and that construction can start in May 2012.
"It is 25 years since Stonehenge and Avebury became a World Heritage Site (WHS). This is a timely reminder of how precious this ancient landscape is and yet how compromised it is at present by traffic and modern clutter at its core.
"It is immensely exciting that English Heritage's long-held vision of a more tranquil, more dignified setting for Stonehenge can finally be realised. People will, for the first time, be able to enjoy Stonehenge with reduced interference of traffic and noise, with world-class visitor facilities, greater access to the wider landscape and other outstanding prehistoric monuments, and the museum-quality interpretation that it deserves. We look forward to starting work on site."
The £27m project, spearheaded by English Heritage with the support of a wide range of partners including the National Trust and the Heritage Lottery Fund, will relocate visitor facilities to Airman's Corner, 1.5 miles west of the present facilities. Visitors will be transported to the stones a short ride away on a low-key transit system. The present visitor facilities and car park will be removed, and the A344 east of Stonehenge and the area around it will be returned to grass, opening up the landscape around Stonehenge and reuniting the monument with its ancient Avenue.
The new visitor facilities are scheduled to open in October 2013; the restoration of the landscape at the site of the existing facilities and near the stone circle will be completed by summer 2014.
The A344 will only be closed after the Highways Agency complete their planned improvements to Longbarrow roundabout in March 2013.
