The Northern Distributer Road AKA Norwich Northern Bypass

[ChrisB]

I have lost count of how many time I say to myself " how did I end up living in one of the bunch"

[Labrador]

What a lovely evening, sitting in the sun in the garden having a beer, but I can't t hear the birds because of the  racket of pile driving for the flyover on the rail line and Plumstead road!

[TheQ]

The road works at the quarry entrance on the Coltishall Road have now cleared.

[TheQ]

The Coltishall  rd work have sprouted traffic lights allowing machinery to cross, normally there is no problem to traffic.

[Poppy]

From the EDP, May 31st 2026

NCC still have concerns about the new Postwick road system....

 

[TheQ]

Further road works on the Hoveton - Stalham road.

The works and Lights at the Stalham end of the road in Hoveton, are continuing but today another set will start between the Hoveton Village hall and the double mini roundabouts.

A little further afield, the road from Palling to Happisburgh At Ingham Corner is closed for the next three Days ( electricity works), the diversion route is via Stalham and Whimpwell green.

I drove the Spixworth- Frettenham road yesterday, and so far there does not seem to be any problems with that road through the NDR, there are some Huge embankments on the eastern side of the road and a lot of machinery including a very big crane at work.

[TheQ]

The road works in Hoveton appear to have cleared as has the road works at Ingham corner.

There is a new set of traffic lights on the Stalham - Ingham road in the S bend, this is to build a new garden wall.
 

[Labrador]

As this is an NDR thread, you may be interested to know that the Plumstead road is closed between Reeves corner and Thorpe End 'til the 20th of June for piling for the new bridge. I believe it may be open Saturday and Sunday, 11th_12th.

[RumPunch]

Does anyone else use  https://roadworks.org/  ?

[TheQ]

9 hours ago, RumPunch said:

Does anyone else use  https://roadworks.org/  ?

Yes I do, but it often is correct for the start of the works but not for the end, for instance when I looked this morning it showed 3 road works in Hoveton and one at Ingham corner all of which have been cleared since Friday.

I did notice there is a sign at Hoveton  just up from the mini roundabout on the Stalham rd, saying on Thursday/ Friday the road will be resurfaced. I guess that means they'll throw some grit at it. But they need to finish on Thursday as they won't be doing it on Friday if the forecast for rain is correct.

[Vaughan]

I knew it!

According to the TV this evening, they have a trained dog which is not only finding Great Crested Newts in the road works but some sort of smooth newt as well. That will be guaranteed to bring anything to a grinding halt.

[TheQ]

it's amazing how such a rare thing as the great crested newt manages to turn up at every major developement......

[JennyMorgan]

Q, I like that!! I'm firmly convinced that canny planning staff carry jars of the critters around with them. 

[Vaughan]

There is something sinister about newts.

 

If it doesn't suit the planners for their own reasons, as at the Oasis centre in Thorpe recently, they can block a whole scheme just by identifying a little colony of newts, whose environment must then remain protected and intact. If it does suit them, however, to force through their grand schemes for the NDR, they just have to hire a sniffer dog and re-locate the newts. Those that they haven't already squashed flat with a bulldozer. They also quietly hope we won't notice that they didn't seem to identify or care about these little darlings before they granted permission to lay waste to thousands of acres of prime Norfolk countryside.

The other side of this coin is the Acle Straight, where their purpose, despite the on-going death toll, seems to be to delay spending money for as long as possible, so they identified a little weird spider in the marshes. Or was it a snail? Some kind of coiled thing, as I remember. They said they were going to re-locate these as well but when it came to it they said they couldn't actually find any. So they have had to be "left un-disturbed in their environment".

I don't think I have ever seen a newt so I wouldn't know one if it jumped up and bit me on the ankle. I am also not sure of their benefit to the environment, except perhaps heron food. I know what a planner looks like though; I have met some of those. I am not sure of their benefit to the environment either.

I wish they were an endangered species too.

[TheQ]

The Gravelling at Hoveton was done remarkably quickly, I went through at 06:15 this morning and they were done from the Mini roundabouts to the Doctors surgery!!! SO all there will be now is a few days driveing at 10MPH.

As an aside to this I notice there have been more Cuts to the verge cutting. They reduced the number of cuts some years ago, but this year they are only cutting on the inside of bends and at road junctions. The grass / vegetation is so high on some single track roads, it's like driving down a tunnel, what it will it be like after a few years of this?

[TheQ]

I suspect the Newt finding dog was filmed some time ago and used before the buldozers arrived. Or arranged filming specially for the cameras after.

[JennyMorgan]

4 minutes ago, TheQ said:

I suspect the Newt finding dog was filmed some time ago and used before the buldozers arrived. Or arranged filming specially for the cameras after.

Probably CGI, bit like the spiders in the Harry Potter films.

[TheQ]

They have now deployed traffic lights on the Wroxham Road, and are digging holes In the carriageway.
If approaching from Norwich, you can round the corner before the works straight into the back of the traffic queue!!!
Having seen the car in front, leave a cloud of smoke from it's tyres as it approached the back of a lorry!!!

Take care folks!!

[TheQ]

The Old Catton to Spixworth Road to Buxton Road is Temporarily closed between Old Catton and Spixworth , The diversion is by the Old Catton to Horstead  / Coltishall road

[TheQ]

They have now singled the Coltishall road with traffic lights, there has been a lot of digging close to the carriageway recently with new water pipes and pipe controls being fitted. Also there has been a lot of shaping of the ground ready for the NDR. According to the NDR web site the roundabout should be built by June so we are about to get maximum distruption I think...

[Labrador]

7 hours ago, TheQ said:

They have now singled the Coltishall road with traffic lights, there has been a lot of digging close to the carriageway recently with new water pipes and pipe controls being fitted. Also there has been a lot of shaping of the ground ready for the NDR. According to the NDR web site the roundabout should be built by June so we are about to get maximum distruption I think...

Exactly the same at Rackheath, difference is that it is a hundred yards up from the Sole and Heel roundabout, so when the lights are red at busy times the traffic is queued up on all roads approaching the roundabout.

[jillR]

they have a new roundabout on the Norwich to fakenham road in place for the end of

NDR connection.

 

[TheQ]

Something at the Coltishall road NDR works has gone wrong in a big way, the road is flooded as are all the great many ditches and holes they have dug. Water is pouring over the carriageway. it suggests one of those new mains water pipes / connections has failed . The pipes were about 18 inches in diameter so that is a lot of water.....

 

 oh there were two sets of road works in Wroxham and Hoveton when I went through last week,  one the set in Wroxham is at the top of the slope as you entre Wroxham from the south by the old Castle? pub  that used to be there. the other set is half way between the mini roundabouts and the new surgery in Hoveton, At peak time he jams fill the mains road through the villages.

[TheQ]

I drove on a bit of the NDR last week.... well across a roundabout at Horsford.

The holes and ditches dried out on the Coltishall road last week quite quickly.

There is now TARMAC!! proceeding across the countryside between the Wroxham road and Coltishall road but not joined at either end just yet.

 

 

[TheQ]

and the Coltishall one