Browse content similar to 11/08/2014. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Hello. a promising step forward in | :00:11. | :00:11. | |
A businessman from Bath, who has built a bypass to avoid | :00:12. | :00:15. | |
traffic delays near his home, says more motorists need to use it, | :00:16. | :00:18. | |
Mike Watts has spent around ?150,000 on the road, | :00:19. | :00:24. | |
A price worth paying, seems to be the overriding opinion, | :00:25. | :00:35. | |
for avoiding a long detour ` and an extra 40 minutes' journey time. | :00:36. | :00:42. | |
When it opened at the beginning of the month, the toll road attracted | :00:43. | :00:45. | |
And now it is attracting drivers from all over, too. | :00:46. | :00:51. | |
700 people a day are using it but that needs to increase, | :00:52. | :00:54. | |
The road has cost ?150,000 to build and it has cost us ?1,000 | :00:55. | :01:03. | |
So I am looking at a potential bill for building and running | :01:04. | :01:10. | |
Now there are 150 days to go, so at ?2 a car, I have to get 150,000 | :01:11. | :01:19. | |
cars over the road to make sure my wife and I are not out of pocket. | :01:20. | :01:24. | |
7,000 people a day would normally use this part | :01:25. | :01:26. | |
of the A431, which has been closed since a landslip in February. | :01:27. | :01:31. | |
The only official way round is a 14`mile detour | :01:32. | :01:34. | |
which has been causing a headache for motorists for months. | :01:35. | :01:39. | |
Over the next few weeks and months, as word spreads about this, it is | :01:40. | :01:42. | |
thought even more motorists will take advantage of this especially | :01:43. | :01:46. | |
when children go back to school in September but also now because it | :01:47. | :01:51. | |
The local council have always said that they would not have been able | :01:52. | :01:57. | |
to do this themselves, instead they're concentrating | :01:58. | :02:00. | |
But they do recognise the benefits to drivers. | :02:01. | :02:05. | |
In the end, we have to say, to Mr Watts, he has taken a bold risk. | :02:06. | :02:14. | |
And only time will tell if that is a success or not for him financially. | :02:15. | :02:19. | |
It is certainly one that has created a lot of interest. | :02:20. | :02:23. | |
The council could not built this road because if we had, we would | :02:24. | :02:26. | |
have had to build it to highway standards and this is nowhere | :02:27. | :02:30. | |
But that's not concerning motorists, who are just happy to have | :02:31. | :02:37. | |
a way round until the main road reopens at Christmas. | :02:38. | :02:45. | |
The country's chief vet was in the West today to promote | :02:46. | :02:48. | |
the Government's strategy for dealing with bovine TB. | :02:49. | :02:51. | |
Actions to be introduced include better measures for keeping badgers | :02:52. | :02:54. | |
off farms, stricter cattle tests, and a second pilot badger cull. | :02:55. | :02:59. | |
The aim is eventually to eradicate the disease, | :03:00. | :03:01. | |
which has led to the slaughter of 11,000 cattle so far this year. | :03:02. | :03:06. | |
We're starting to see the epidemic level off. | :03:07. | :03:10. | |
It has increased ninefold since the late 90s to 2010. | :03:11. | :03:19. | |
We have by no means got on top of the disease, but the cattle measures | :03:20. | :03:24. | |
It was built with pickaxes and gunpowder 173 years ago | :03:25. | :03:30. | |
The Great Western Railway was one of Brunel's masterpieces. | :03:31. | :03:37. | |
And as part one of our series on the region's spectacular feats | :03:38. | :03:40. | |
of engineering, Jenhi Osman finds out why it's such an achievement. | :03:41. | :03:45. | |
The main concern of passengers here at Paddington is | :03:46. | :03:47. | |
Few would have considered the engineering achievement | :03:48. | :03:52. | |
Let me take you on a swift journey of discovery. | :03:53. | :03:59. | |
This is the driver's view of the line today. | :04:00. | :04:01. | |
Just five years later, the line to Bristol was complete. | :04:02. | :04:07. | |
It was the longest in the country and known as Brunel's billiard | :04:08. | :04:10. | |
But the genius of this was that Brunel in his wisdom had designed | :04:11. | :04:18. | |
a wider track, known as a broad gauge, which was almost | :04:19. | :04:21. | |
Let's find out about this by stopping at Swindon. | :04:22. | :04:29. | |
A wider track meant a lower centre of gravity, | :04:30. | :04:31. | |
A broad gauge was good in the sense that if it had come to | :04:32. | :04:39. | |
fruition and gone over the whole network, you could have run faster, | :04:40. | :04:43. | |
You have to remember that Brunel surveyed the land from Bristol to | :04:44. | :04:52. | |
Today, if you were building this railway, | :04:53. | :05:06. | |
No helicopters and no heavy engineering machinery then. | :05:07. | :05:10. | |
This was a world of pickaxes, shovels, horses and many labourers. | :05:11. | :05:12. | |
But the next wonder I want to show you is Box Tunnel outside Bath. | :05:13. | :05:16. | |
It is almost two miles long, the longest of its time. | :05:17. | :05:18. | |
Some said it would be impossible to build. | :05:19. | :05:23. | |
Brunel sank six vertical shafts to allow work to continue | :05:24. | :05:27. | |
They used a tonne of gunpowder every week. | :05:28. | :05:34. | |
So this was the journey's end, the original Bristol terminal. | :05:35. | :05:37. | |
The main station today is just over there. | :05:38. | :05:40. | |
The GWR eventually had to adopt the standard gauge track to fit | :05:41. | :05:44. | |
in with the rest of the country but few would argue that in | :05:45. | :05:47. | |
engineering terms, Brunel's railway was the greatest of them all. | :05:48. | :05:57. | |
The country's oldest open`air swimming pool, which is in Bath, | :05:58. | :06:00. | |
The Cleveland Pools fell into disrepair | :06:01. | :06:04. | |
But today, campaigners found out they've been given a third of a | :06:05. | :06:09. | |
million pounds of Lottery money with a promise of ?4 million to follow, | :06:10. | :06:13. | |
Music is getting underway with more images of Iraq. Now the weather for | :06:14. | :06:32. | |
the West. Tomorrow replicating the conditions | :06:33. | :06:44. | |
of today. Some thundery showers. But there will be bright interludes as | :06:45. | :06:50. | |
well. The heavy showers have been pushing off into parts of North | :06:51. | :06:54. | |
Somerset of the Bristol Channel. They are probably going as far as | :06:55. | :06:59. | |
Swindon before too long. We will see more wind as the night continues. | :07:00. | :07:05. | |
Conditions are cool. Tomorrow picks up a similar theme. A succession of | :07:06. | :07:11. | |
showers in some areas. Some thundery. Some dry, bright weather | :07:12. | :07:16. | |
about in other places. Those showers gradually fading. Temperatures | :07:17. | :07:27. | |
struggling somewhat. Fewer showers on Wednesday, heavier ones on | :07:28. | :07:29. | |
Thursday. But it The weather system born out of the | :07:30. | :07:46. | |
remnants of Hurricane Bertha has turned into the party guest | :07:47. | :07:47. |