Road closure and 20 mile diversion in Shropshire
Currently, and for some time, I have been told, there is a major problem for caravanners hoping to use the A488 to get from Craven Arms to Pontesbury/Shrewsbury.All traffic is being diverted off that road because of a road closure near Hope and Foxgreen
The road closure/diversion advisory signs start just outside Craven Arms and the diversion itself starts about 8 miles later. There are a number of smaller roads shown on the maps which exit the A488 and may be used to avoid the closed area - however none of them are suitable for caravan transit. they all involve very steep, narrow single lane roads with very sharp bends, often without passing places that could take an outfit. Most are temporarily signposted unsuitable for HGV but not all.
Satnavs consistently try to route travellers up these roads because the 'official', and poorly signposted, diversion adds 20 miles to the journey and goes via Welshpool - VERY counterintuitive!
We have found from bitter experience that whilst a solo car can safely ignore advisory signs, it is not a reasonable option for caravanners - at some point they will need to find a way to use very twisty narrow roads to return to decent ones.
I was particularly irritated to find that neither the AA or RAC route planners show any roadworks on the A488. Would it not be possible for the Club to ask them to see if there may be a way to advise them of any such road closures that might cause problems for those towing caravans?
A means to pass on this sort of information to Club members might be very useful as well.
I will get this information onto the forum but am not sure how frequently it is used, so how effective it is at getting a message out.
Comments
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I think the point of the post is to highlight the road closure in an effort to stop those caravanners who ignore the signs. Although well intentioned, I fear the OP is beating his/her head against a brick wall🙁
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We know the roads that the OP is advising against taking a caravan (or large M/H) along and fully agree with them. It's typical hilly farming country which quite a few of us live among or know of in their own area.
I also agree that the Club probably won't take a blind bit of notice of but thank him/her/them for bringing the matter to a small minority of people on here. Hope it helps someone and they take @scoutman's advice as an alternative.
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On the subject of road closures, there are extensive ongoing roadworks at the junction of the A1 and A421 near St Neots (Black Cat roundabout) and there are frequent closures of these roads and the A428 at weekends and overnight. You can check the situation >here< on Facebook or >here< on the Highways Authority pages but the area is best avoided if possible even when there are no closures because of frequent conjestion caused by restrictons.
peedee
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