A TRAFFIC-CALMING scheme for Woolmer Hill Road in Haslemere, to be in place before the A3 tunnel is open to traffic, is among the list of key issues recommended to be agreed in principle at a meeting today (Friday).

Also on the same agenda item at Surrey County Council's Waverley local committee meeting is a recommendation to agree to the restoration of the existing part of the A3 around the Devil's Punch Bowl to provide pedestrian, cycle and equestrian facilities, once the tunnel is built.

With present proposals to close the existing A3, access will still be required to maintain the existing utility services located within the existing carriageway. Those details still have to finalised and a number of options are being considered.

If the road is closed, it would revert to mostly National Trust land and new rights of way would have to be established. Alternatively, if the road was downgraded from a trunk road it would revert to the county council which would be responsible for its maintenance.

The committee made up of Surrey and Waverley councillors has also been recommended to agree a change to an original proposal for the junction at Boundless Lane.

It is now recommended not to link the narrow lane to the A3 because it could be used as a rat-run

Instead a junction open to all traffic would be included at the northern end of the tunnel linking into Boundless Lane.

While proposals for the A3 tunnel are still in the early stages, the meeting will hear that the tunnel timetable includes the announcement of the appointment of the successful tunnel consortium within the next few weeks.

Planning applications and public notices will be published in September next year and a public inquiry is scheduled for April 2004. Subject to its satisfactory outcome, approval is expected to be given to begin work on the tunnel in March 2005, with construction starting up to six months later.

The £110 million tunnel is expected to be open to traffic four years later in 2009 and the whole scheme, including the restoration of the existing A3, completed by March 2010.

The meeting will hear that once the tunnel is open, without a traffic calming scheme, traffic using Woolmer Hill Road to access the A3 at the new Hammer Lane junction is expected to double during the morning rush-hour and quadruple in the evening for the journey home.

But Highways Agency consultants believe that if speeds are reduced to 40 kph or below 25 miles per hour, the flow of traffic "should remain at a similar level to those that could be expected without the tunnel".

Funding for a traffic calming scheme, says the report, is not likely to be plain sailing with no guaranteed money available. SCC would have to bid for funds for the work and allocate money in a future year, unless alternative finance for the scheme can be agreed with the government.

Although the report says that because of the magnitude of the project there are likely to be a large number of issues to be resolved, and consultations are ongoing with those affected, it will provide "much-needed relief for the Hindhead area and will dramatically improve the traffic flow on the A3."

In calling for recommendation of the key issues involved in the report, it concludes: "The improved traffic flow on the A3 should reduce traffic levels on the county road network as levels of rat-running traffic will be reduced by the removal of the Hindhead crossroads bottleneck."