Surely the prime purpose of the bypass is to take heavy goods vehicles away from Ely.

The idea of lowering the road is not the answer for the following reasons.

It will still mean vehicles up to 44 tonnes still using Angel Drove and Station Road.

The current height clearance is 2.7m/9 feet. The maximum height of vehicles allowed on UK roads is 5.03m/16’6”.

Now I’m no engineer, but the road would have to be lowered about 3m to allow these vehicles to pass under the railway.

If you are not going to lower it enough to let these vehicles through, you might as well leave it as it is.

To lower the road by this amount cannot be feasible for the following reasons.

Any work taking place would mean closure of the bridge.

Work under the bridge would probably mean disruption to rail services.

If the road is lowered the current access would be too steep, and there is no way to change this (access to the station?).

The underpass would probably not be wide enough anyway to allow two hgvs to pass.

Then there’s the problem with flooding, meaning a system of pumps would have to be provided.

And anyway an elevated approach to Ely would surely improve the view of the Cathedral, even they approve of the bypass.