The Opening of the Porcupine GapThe official opening of the A3 Expressway "Porcupine Gap" section, between Bainbridge and Sandscale in southern Bucklow, took place on Monday 23rd April 2007. It was a fine, bright spring day, with early mist being burnt off by the sun and reaching a temperature of about 15° C by early afternoon. The party of dignitaries gathered at the southern end of the road just before noon for the opening ceremony. They included William Galt, the current Minister of Transport, his predecessor Peter Hough, who had approved the construction of the road and was also the local MP for Bainbridge, and their Brunswickian counterpart Matthew Holmes. Although Galt and Hough were nominally political enemies they were observed sharing a joke together. The environmental protests over the road that had culminated in the "battle of Burrows dip" had centred on the threat to the habitat of the Lesser Green Sand Lizard, and a protester dressed as a giant lizard attempted to disrupt the proceedings but was bundled away by the police before he could get anywhere near the dignitaries. Galt, who was noted for plain speaking, gave a typically combative speech in which he pointed out how the government were making major investments in both road and rail improvements. Arransia was a country that took transport development seriously and the completion of the Porcupine Gap, followed by the A1 widening later in the year, gave a clear message that the country could hold its head up in any international company. He poured scorn on the backward-looking and economically illiterate attitude of the anti-road protesters, but said that Arransia was not a country to take a cavalier attitude to the environment, and stressed that twenty-five tunnels had been provided to allow animals to pass from one side of the road to another, and observations had shown if anything a small increase in the local population of sand lizards, despite the recent hard winter. Galt then formally cut the tape, allowing pride of place on the new road to go to a cavalcade of preserved commercial vehicles from both Arransia and Brunswick led by a 1948 Arransian steam lorry and escorted by motorcycle outriders from the AMG. The official party followed in an observation coach and, after completing their drive along the new road, repaired to the Porcupine Hotel itself for a formal celebratory dinner. Southbound, it was a simple matter of workers removing cones and temporary signs a few minutes later. By 1.30 pm traffic was flowing smoothly in both directions as if the road was a well-established feature. The remaining camp of road protesters at the northern end of the link were understandably in downbeat mode as their efforts had come to nothing. Because of sensibilities over the "battle of Burrows Dip" the government did not stage an official flypast (which wasn't normally done for road openings anyway) but the owner of a preserved F-8 jet fighter took the opportunity to do a low-level pass over the camp and then produce a sonic boom as he crossed the coastline – presumably with at least tacit official approval. The Brunswickian hauliers had deliberately avoided sending any vehicles north that morning that would arrive before the road opening, so the afternoon saw an almost constant procession of heavy trucks rumbling past at 55 mph which must have been very galling to the protesters. The road itself very much followed the pattern of the A3 Marchwood Expressway to the south, two 24-foot carriageways separated by a 30-foot central reservation containing a mixture of ditch, low bank and bushes, and four-foot hardstrips bordered by a well-drained grassed run-off area. There were four emergency lay-bys on either side, and a single trumpet junction giving access to a rest area by the Porcupine Hotel and the local road network. The hotel had built an extended informal dining area to function as a meal stop, although planning permission for a petrol station had been refused. At each end it was linked to the old road by a simple fork junction with a flyover. There was ample room within the highway boundaries for a future expansion from two to three lanes. It ran mostly through infertile sandy heathland covered with scrub and straggly woods, and initially it had to be said appeared rather stark, but judging from the experience of the road further south a few years' growth of vegetation would make it blend much better into the landscape. An Arransian expressway built in this style was certainly much less of a concrete scar than its Brunswickian equivalent would be. As the Porcupine Gap was something that had caused legendary frustration to Brunswickian hauliers, business travellers and holidaymakers for many years, the opening very unusually featured on national television news in Brunswick. It was impossible to avoid the conclusion that Matthew Holmes appeared very well fed and watered following the celebratory dinner, and one or two critical comments were passed over the fact that he was currently in discussions with the Arransians over extending their railway wagonload freight system throughout Brunswick. It was hardly surprising that the days following the opening saw a noticeable build-up of tailbacks at the junction between the A3 Expressway and the A25 Danby western bypass. One journalist put it to William Galt that this showed that opening the new link just moved the traffic jam further up the road, but he pointed out in response that the work to widen the A25 to three-lane Expressway standard had already started, and once that was complete there should be hold-up free travel all the way from the border to Hebburn.
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