Council chiefs are giving new consideration to the idea of an A36-A46 link road to create a bypass for Bath.
The concept – off the table for many years – is being looked at as B&NES Council draws up a transport blueprint for the next 15 years.
Senior politicians now see the road – between the Batheaston Bypass and Warminster Road – as a key solution to the thorny problem of keeping HGVs out of the city, and Bath's air quality crisis.
They are also making progress with a £90 million scheme to create a new park and rail facility at Bathampton.
According to the Lib Dem's recent newsletter, Focus, the park and rail would be located at a new railway station to be built at the Bathampton junction and commuters and visitors would be able to enjoy a four minute train ride into the city centre every 15 minutes.
A car park for the site would be accessed from the A4 Batheaston bypass through a tunnel under the railway embankment.
Traffic heading for the A36 would use the same tunnel under the railway, pass the car park and carry on up the hill on a new link road.
The newsletter, signed by council leader Councillor Paul Crossley, claims the road would be hidden from view by tunnels.
It said: "There have been many meetings with the government, Network Rail and the Highways Agency to discuss the schemes, and the response has been very encouraging."
There is no time scale or cost for the project nor information about how it will be funded.
Mr Crossley has said the DoT has agreed that the council can create an underpass under the main line during a six-week closure period for its electrification next year.
Engineering work there could shave seconds off existing rail journey times, while the underpass could also provide a route to a property served by a level crossing which triggers enormous insurance premiums for Network Rail.
The station would be on the south coast line, leaving services to and from London unaffected.
Neither the new road nor the railway station feature in a very general blueprint drawn up by experts at consultants Mott MacDonald.
But both will be key suggestions being fed into a consultation exercise, Getting Around Bath, beginning this week which will lead to a firmer transport strategy in October.
The new road suggestion will be backed by the Federation of Bath Residents' Associations, but is likely to be opposed by parish councils in the Limpley Stoke valley.
Mr Crossley said: "We're looking forward to hearing people's ideas on how to resolve a number of transport issues that affect Bath and the roads in to Bath, so we're inviting comments from members of the public and businesses."
Councillor Martin Veal (Bathavon North, Con) said he was under whelmed by the scheme and had concerns.
"Building a tunnel would need a massive amount of money and it would have to be done in a fixed period of time, which this council will never be able to pull off.
"As for the A46 and A36 link road aspiration it just won't work. It will encourage more heavy goods vehicles to come down the A46. We are joining two roads that are every two or three months falling into the valley."
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