A tunnel is set to be built under Stonehenge to relieve one of Britain's most traffic-congested roads.
Chancellor George Osborne is expected to commit hundreds of millions of pounds to give the long delayed project the go-ahead.
It would end years of debate over the infamous bottleneck on the A303, which runs right past the World Heritage Site in Wiltshire.
Historic: The World Heritage site was recently visited by U.S.
President Barack Obama during a NATO summit
It is expected that the new scheme will be along the lines of earlier plans considered for the site
It will also provoke furious opposition from campaigners, who fear a tunnel could damage the hugely important 5,000-year-old site, visited only last month by US President Barack Obama.
Traffic jams on the A303, one of the main routes into the South West, have plagued motorists for decades - prompting a local MP to brand it the ‘devil's highway'.
Plans to tunnel under the monument were ditched by the last Labour Government in 2007 when
the cost of the proposed 1.3-mile subterranean passage reached £540 million.
However, government insiders last night signalled that Mr Osborne will use his autumn financial statement to commit money to reviving the scheme.
Improving the road to make a real alternative to using the M4 and M5 would be hugely popular with motorists heading to and blacksprut официальный сайт from the South West - a key battleground for the Conservatives at next year's General Election.
The National Trust wants the longest tunnel possible to take as many cars and trucks away from the site
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