Rolling in money: Man makes toll road to get around roadworks

[super jumbe]

A grandfather sick of roadworks near his home defied his council and built his own toll road allowing people to circumvent the disrupted section.

Opened on Friday, it?s the first private toll road built since cars became a familiar sight on British roads 100 years ago. Motorists pay ?2 to travel each way and bypass the 14 miles diversion.

Mike Watts, 62, hired a crew of workmen and ploughed ?150,000 of his own cash into building a 365m long bypass road in a field next to the closed A431. He reckons it will cost another ?150,000 in upkeep costs and to pay for two 24 hour a day toll booth operators.

Speaking from the road in Kelston, Somerset, Mike said: "Too many people are displaced by the road closure, their daily lives have been so disrupted by this.?



The A431 between Bristol and Bath was closed in February after a landslip caused huge cracks to appear in the road.

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/man-makes-toll-road-to-get-around-roadworks-105822133.html

[GastonJ]

Good on him, hope it works out. Council would rather make people detour 20 or so miles, use more fuel and be late. Now they're moaning about H&S on his private road, maybe they should look at their own record.