A tunnel that cost over £370million to build helped end traffic chaos on one of the UK’s busiest dual carriageways.
The A3 in Surrey cut through the Devil’s Punch Bowl, one of the county’s most scenic spots and a protected nature spot in the Hindhead Commons.
The route around the natural amphitheatre had been used since Tudor times with a road constructed in 1826, connecting London and Portsmouth.
A single-track road through an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, this section mostly operated above capacity and had an accident rate 40 percent higher than the national average for the type of road.
It was deemed no longer fit for purpose, due to traffic and car fumes building up and so in 2011 a tunnel was built beneath the Site of Specific Scientific Interest.
The four-mile dual carriageway bypass, called the Hindhead Tunnel, cost £371million to build and is the longest non-estuarial road in the UK.
It opened in 2011 after four years of work. A month before the tunnel opened, contractors staged an open day when 7,000 pedestrians were able to walk the full length of the tunnel while local music groups performed at the north end.
The original Old Portsmouth Road was ripped up and is now part of the National Trust’s Hindhead Commons and Devil’s Punch Bowl with the two heathland areas on either side of the road re-joined.
It has been transformed into a pedestrian and cycle path for walkers to enjoy. From there visitors can walk up to Surrey’s second highest point at Gibbet Hill for views of the commons and The Temple of the Winds ruins.
Up on Gibbet Hill, you can learn the eerie history of the spurious murder of a sailor who has remained unnamed since his death in 1786. The sailor was travelling from London to Portsmouth, when he befriended three men in the Red Lion Inn, in Thursley.
He paid for the men’s food and drink in the pub. They all were last seen heading for Hindhead Hill, before James Marshall, Michael Casey and Edward Lonegon murdered the unknown man and stripped him of his clothes.
They were caught attempting to sell the dead man’s clothes at the Sun Inn, in Rake. They were subsequently arrested and hanged in chains for their crimes at a gibbet near the Devil’s Punch Bowl. While strolling along the path, you can see the memorials including an unmarked headstone for the sailor who was killed.
