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I never drove the old A3… but from reading all these comments… I’m getting terrible commuting anxiety from them… 😰😰😰

Some people think that the solid white line in the middle of the road in some tunnels doesn’t have any legal meaning because it’s not mentioned in the Highway Code but it has the same meaning as double white lines where the line closest to you is solid, you can only cross the line to pass a stationary vehicle blocking the lane or to overtake a cyclist, horse or road maintenance vehicle travelling at 10mph or less, some tunnels have a sign just before you enter saying keep in lane which is what I’d do.

The poor Challenge Week trips out will be sadly missed that we’ll never see them again because it was eventually time for them to retire because it was too expensive it was cheaper to do a few trips out RIP😭😢😥🥺😿

The UK doesnt have many Engineering success stories quite like this. It is very nice to see a project that peaked the public's interest and involved so much consideration for locals and wildlife. Coming in under budget is also very impressive. Wouldnt get that these days!

I have used these roads for years with my truck and it makes such a huge difference not having to go through Hindhead any longer. The queues at those lights could be 3 miles long sometimes. Gradually, the A3 is getting sorted out. The new improvements up at the M25 are going on at the moment. We could do with some sort of flyover at the Liss roundabout, and I would love to see a bypass to the north of Guildford. I would think a new road from the Clay Lane junction could go up over Jacobs Well and round to come out with a new junction on top of the Hogs Back (somewhere past the bridge) which could really straigten out the present situation linking the A3 and A31 properly in both directions.

I think longer tunnels exist in the UK. I've driven through it and enjoyed how fresh and new it feels. I guess Hindhead residents are grateful for this. Unlike railway tunnels dig in the Victorian era, it seems there were no human casualties (or worse). Engineering has certainly come on since those days.

Great Stuff. I have been travelling down the A3 for the last 40 years from SW London to Portsmouth. Its a much nicer, more streamlined drive now with only one roundabout to navigate now. Albeit I do miss the views around Devils Punch Bowl.

The only thing that stands out for me from this video….is , how many people are involved, that are not actually building the tunnel….I mean, come on , , Community Relations Manager…….how much is he on .? 👍👌😉😔

So if they could reinforce the sandstone like that why are they not doing that around the country in places of coastal erosion?

Them children will be in their mid 20s now

How fantastic to see money being so wisely spent on new roads rather than being wasted on the "Giant White Elephant Railway Project" (HS2 - AKA High Spend Two).

👏👏👏

a door-mouse license is a very British concept..

great job by the workers, big big shame the companies with the contracts are absolute con artists and tax dodgers in their higher echelons. if you work for one of these PLC's start a trade union in the workplace if you havent already. Solidarity.

Geat video. I remember well the old Hindhead A3 route. At a time when all of the A3 from Portsmouth to the M25 and beyond was open dual-carriageway, the Devil's Punch Bowl section was a horrible little single-carriageway traffic jam with a single set of traffic lights in the middle of Hindhead. I would expect to take anywhere between 5 and 30 minutes there, but now the same section takes 2 minutes. I bet the people who live in the village are a lot happier now too.

good video I remember as a kid when we went to the beach having to go through Handheld, one day they will do the tunnel under Guildford

I remember the first time I drove through the tunnel, my car sat nav told me that I was on the wrong road, and also not on a road!

Great video BUT a follow up on the instant change in the village would be intensly interesting

No mention of cost and environmental destruction, unlike HS2

Muppet at 0:55

Muppet at 0:55

What a brilliant video. I've been travelling that road from Portsmouth at various times for at least 60 years.... as a kid the old road beside the punchbowl was a landmark that I always enjoyed seeing.... but as an adult I think the tunnel is a marvellous feature and the way they achieved it is quite stunning. And I can still pull of and go to the National Trust cafe for a tea and bacon roll and then go wandering to see the punchbowl before continuing on my way in either direction.

I grew up in Guildford and would often be driven, and later, drive myself around the Hindhead area and around 'The Devil's Punchbowl' with family and friends. The congestion through Hindhead village grew worse and worse over many years amd it became a dangerous road in fog or heavy rain. (I seem to remember a lot of fog!) . The tunnel construction and regeneration has been a massive success story in the area and this is a great film which shows the incredible hard work and commitment that goes into such a scheme. Wonderful.

2008 till 2010 Labour investing in Britain's future I miss having a government that invests and doesn't just steal!

why does it say Southampton in the description??

I bet the safety systems weren't tested with an EV in thermal-runaway.

No lavatories for the disabled and non binary, no prayer rooms and mats for Islamic worshipers, no ice cream parlour ... nor even a picnic area -- poor job

50 years to get rid of the disaster of the old A3 going through poor old Hindhead.

I've walked through the devil's punchbowl and it was definitely up north.

Overall it’s a resounding success, well done! One poor decision, I’d say, was to not keep the old A3 available for emergencies only, for when ambulances find both lanes of a tunnel closed... Obviously a very rare occurrence, but the large diversion required will inevitably cost the occasional life!

shame the old road got put to heathland it was a nice view as i drove along it.

The way projects should be done 👍

Drove the old route many many times during the 90's and the traffic was always bad. I remember a strange mix of antique shops at the traffic lights. Only seems like yesterday.

Great tunnel drive it most days to Portsmouth

l travelled on the A3 before the Hindhead tunnels and have driven through the tunnels many times. To all of the people involved in the construction please accept my grateful thanks. Also thanks for this video explaining some of what went into making these tunnels a success story.

I can’t believe how long it’s been open now! The centre of Hindhead used to be a nightmare to get through but now the A3 is a delight and the village so much better for it. Great video too - thanks for sharing!

It is a fantastic tunnel. As a regular motorist through it, I find the LED signs mounted up high are too small.

So nice to see this film placed on RUclips. In years to come, it will be a great historical documentation of the work done. Educational and entertaining.

Greetings from Sweden 😀

Why not use a TBM? and I also wonder what the impact will be on the towns shops, will it become another ghost town?

allways loved the devil's punchbowl, ever since going camping there with my school in the '70s got attacked by an adder once, luckily I was wearing kriegsmarine boots!

Very well designed Very safe Very considerate Very ecological Very very expensive.

Can someone please tell all motorists that it is a national highway speed limit (70), unless otherwise stated.

Well I was on the motorbike nearest the camera behind the police escort as they opened it - my 2 seconds of fame I suspect 😂 and it was really great to see it done. It made a huge difference to the road system and turned one of my favourite walking places into a delight. Oddly it did leave the centre of hind head rather forlorn, a sudden backwater, but I’m sure over the years it’s become rather lovely as the punchbowl is so lovely.

Dormouse license…and now we know why HS2 has been so slow and expensive. You have to pay a bunch of people to go and check every leaf before you can even break ground. Then they dig up a swathe of land 10x wider than they even need!

I find it interesting to look at the electoral history of areas like this that get tons of investment into such projects to understand why there is the will to do things like this there and not where I live. Surprise surprise this area is one of the safest conservative seats in the country. It wouldn't happen in a place like Nottinghamshire. It's "leveling up" at it's finest just like Rishi promised. Same deal with the HS2 Chiltern tunnel. Chesham and Amersham has been a solid conservative seat since since it was created in 1974 until 2021 when they lost to the lib dems in a by-election but the tunnel was already under construction by then. I can't think of a single major infrastructure project underway in the UK right now that isn't in a safe conservative seat. They might run things like HS2 through other areas but they don't care how much of those places they destroy while doing it. They dont even bother to fill the pot holes in Nottinghamshire any more.

Only reason its a tunnel is because of the huge protests when the M3 was rerouted/widened at Winchester, Otherwise the A3 would be in a cutting as at Winchester

So it needs two control rooms and a permanent staff, just for two miles of road...? We have a 10 mile By-Pass around a town, and that doesn't need constant supervision.

Anyone who lives nearby knows how long it took to complete 🤷‍♂️