17 May 2013, 09:00
Islands in the road
© NR 2013
Over the last few months there has been quite a bit of road re-alignment going on around here, EG building bypasses, new junctions, improved turn offs, replacing junctions with roundabouts , new slip roads and new wider sections of road replacing old out dated narrower bits of road.
Now I’m not suggesting the all of these changes to our highways and byways are useful for preppers, most are not but some certainly are.
One example has seen an old junction with on and off slip roads be replaced by a roundabout only 150 yards further on, this has led to the old slip roads being closed and fenced off and the grass strip that was once kept trimmed has now been planted with assorted hedging.
In only a few years these closed off sections will be totally screened from the main road by the hedging and that strip of land plus the old slip roads will be invisible to highway traffic, this could or should be ideal as temporary bug out locations or even caching spots, or perhaps even used for guerilla gardening.
In a very similar vein I have seen new large roundabouts serving dual carriageways and trunk roads that have been planted with trees and shrubs thus creating a densely planted island in the middle of the road, again suitable for temporary BOL’s or lay overs. I enquired with the highways agency about how often they were visited and maintained and in most areas they only go to these places when the trees and foliage start to overhang the highway, this can be YEARS in between visits, and those visits are only often to the edge of the roundabout and not the over grown center part.
One can also often find then when a new piece of highway has been built the original piece of the road is often simply closed off and ignore especially if the neighbouring land owners don’t lay claim to it.
More and more strips of land between slip roads and main carriageways are being planted with trees and shrubs rather than grassed in an effort to reduce noise levels in the area from the increasing levels of traffic, and also as extra filtration to try and improve air quality. Planting with trees also requires less costs as the trees don’t have to be cut 3 times a year like grass verges are.
This places even more isolated chunks of land around, alongside, under and even on occasion over our road network that we can possibly utilise to suit our own prepping needs.
On a slightly different point in many of the UKs 1960s built New Towns many new roundabouts were built UNDER the dual carriageways of the roads they served, the main road being elevated over the top. In many cases if you have a nose around you will find concealed subterranean storage units accessed by steel doors many of these used to be used by street cleaning teams but are no longer in use. A good example of this can be found on the Peterlee new town roundabout under the A19. Indeed in some areas entire garages and workshops have been built under these new bypasses there’s a good example of one on the A167 in Newton Aycliffe , Co Durham, overall I think it’s well worthwhile keeping an eye open when driving past your local road improvement schemes, perhaps even using Google Earth to get a better idea of what the lie of the land is.
© NR 2013
Over the last few months there has been quite a bit of road re-alignment going on around here, EG building bypasses, new junctions, improved turn offs, replacing junctions with roundabouts , new slip roads and new wider sections of road replacing old out dated narrower bits of road.
Now I’m not suggesting the all of these changes to our highways and byways are useful for preppers, most are not but some certainly are.
One example has seen an old junction with on and off slip roads be replaced by a roundabout only 150 yards further on, this has led to the old slip roads being closed and fenced off and the grass strip that was once kept trimmed has now been planted with assorted hedging.
In only a few years these closed off sections will be totally screened from the main road by the hedging and that strip of land plus the old slip roads will be invisible to highway traffic, this could or should be ideal as temporary bug out locations or even caching spots, or perhaps even used for guerilla gardening.
In a very similar vein I have seen new large roundabouts serving dual carriageways and trunk roads that have been planted with trees and shrubs thus creating a densely planted island in the middle of the road, again suitable for temporary BOL’s or lay overs. I enquired with the highways agency about how often they were visited and maintained and in most areas they only go to these places when the trees and foliage start to overhang the highway, this can be YEARS in between visits, and those visits are only often to the edge of the roundabout and not the over grown center part.
One can also often find then when a new piece of highway has been built the original piece of the road is often simply closed off and ignore especially if the neighbouring land owners don’t lay claim to it.
More and more strips of land between slip roads and main carriageways are being planted with trees and shrubs rather than grassed in an effort to reduce noise levels in the area from the increasing levels of traffic, and also as extra filtration to try and improve air quality. Planting with trees also requires less costs as the trees don’t have to be cut 3 times a year like grass verges are.
This places even more isolated chunks of land around, alongside, under and even on occasion over our road network that we can possibly utilise to suit our own prepping needs.
On a slightly different point in many of the UKs 1960s built New Towns many new roundabouts were built UNDER the dual carriageways of the roads they served, the main road being elevated over the top. In many cases if you have a nose around you will find concealed subterranean storage units accessed by steel doors many of these used to be used by street cleaning teams but are no longer in use. A good example of this can be found on the Peterlee new town roundabout under the A19. Indeed in some areas entire garages and workshops have been built under these new bypasses there’s a good example of one on the A167 in Newton Aycliffe , Co Durham, overall I think it’s well worthwhile keeping an eye open when driving past your local road improvement schemes, perhaps even using Google Earth to get a better idea of what the lie of the land is.