A3 road

Route map:
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about the A3 road in Great Britain. For other roads named A3, see List of A3 roads.

A3 shield
A3
M275
South-west endPortsmouth Harbour
50°47′30″N 1°06′31″W / 50.7918°N 1.1086°W / 50.7918; -1.1086 (A3 road (southern end))
Location
Country
Petersfield
Road network
←
A4

The A3, known as the Portsmouth Road or London Road in sections, is a major road connecting the City of London and Portsmouth passing close to Kingston upon Thames, Guildford, Haslemere and Petersfield. For much of its 67-mile (108 km) length, it is classified as a trunk road and therefore managed by National Highways. Almost all of the road has been built to dual carriageway standards or wider. Apart from bypass sections in London, the road travels in a southwest direction and, after Liss, south-southwest.

Close to its southerly end, motorway traffic is routed via the A3(M), then either the east–west A27 or the Portsmouth-only M275 which has multiple lanes leading off the westbound A27 — for non-motorway traffic, the A3 continues into Portsmouth alongside the A3(M), mostly as a single carriageway in each direction through Waterlooville and adjoining small towns. The other section of single carriageways is through the urban environs of Battersea, Clapham and Stockwell towards the northern end, which has to accommodate bus lanes and parking meter bays.

multi-carriageway road with vehicles passing under an elevated roadway and distant view of sea beyond
The A3(M) at the Portsdown Hill Road Bridge nearing Junction 5 with the A27
taken from a vehicle, a three-lane road with light traffic passing through wooded area
Northbound near the Wisley Interchange with the M25

History

Early history

By the 17th century, the historic Portsmouth Road bore great strategic significance as the road link between the capital city and what became the settled main port of the

Kingston-upon-Thames and Esher
, retains its name, Portsmouth Road.

The road was once the haunt of

highwaymen such as Jerry Abershawe, who in the 18th Century terrorised the area around Kingston and led a gang based at the Bald Faced Stag Inn on the Portsmouth Road. Another particularly dangerous location was in the vicinity of the wooded crest skirting the Devil's Punch Bowl, Hindhead, about 8 miles (13 km) south-west of Guildford
.

Later History

A programme of road improvements, starting in the 1920s, transformed the road, so that it is now predominantly a two- or three-lane

A3(M), just before the road reaches the A27 at Havant. The construction of the Kingston and Guildford bypasses in the 1920s and 1930s made use of temporary narrow-gauge railways to move the construction materials. The Esher bypass, between Hook from the first mentioned bypass to the M25
, is three lanes with a motorway-standard hard shoulder; from there to Guildford the road has three lanes.

Mock-Tudor gabled houses and gabled Arts and Crafts movement-inspired houses. The final section of the Kingston bypass now forms part of the A309
thanks to the construction of the Esher bypass.

The complexity of the double roundabout at the junction between the A309 Kingston by-pass and the A307 led to it being referred to colloquially as the Silly Isles; later the junction officially adopted the name The Scilly Isles.[4]

In 2011, the Hindhead Tunnel became the centrepiece of the Hindhead bypass, away from the road through the village, where the only urban set of traffic lights on the route outside London had created a bottleneck. Until 2011, the road through Hindhead was the last single-carriageway section of the route, outside London and Portsmouth.

Route

The road follows a route roughly parallel to the

Portsmouth Direct Line railway which goes through, rather than past, all of the towns which the road serves, with Havant and Woking
2 miles (3.2 km) and 3 miles (4.8 km), respectively, off the road.

Greater London

The A3 starts at

dual-carriageway and the speed limit increases from 30 to 40 mph (48 to 64 km/h). The A3 then continues south-west between Richmond Park and Wimbledon Common, as Kingston Road before beginning to bypass Kingston upon Thames while going through Roehampton Vale. The A3 enters The Royal Borough of Kingston Upon Thames just before Kingston Vale where there is a junction with the A308
for Kingston upon Thames and Richmond Park.

For the first 5 km (3.1 mi) south of Richmond Park, the A3 runs within 300 m (980 ft) of the

parapets are visible and, for 2 km (1.2 mi), where the road runs along the edge of Wimbledon Common, the trees flanking the stream can be glimpsed across playing fields, with the lightly managed "natural" woodland of the common rising beyond. Except for the playing fields, the whole of the common, including Beverley Brook, is both a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI)[5][6] and a Special Area of Conservation (SAC).[7] The speed limit then increases to 50 mph (80 km/h) before going under the Coombe Flyover. The A3 then goes on a flyover at Shannon Corner located on the edges of Motspur Park, Raynes Park and New Malden, before having an additional junction for New Malden, then Tolworth and Hook
along the Kingston By-pass.

Brief features of a section of road contribute to a traffic pinch-point during

peak hours around the Hook underpass. The road reduces from three lanes to two in the underpass. The speed limit at this point in the London-bound direction reduces from 70 to 50 miles per hour (113 to 80 km/h), with the first of a handful of Gatso speed enforcement cameras. If returning to London, traffic from the A309 also joins just before the underpass.[n 2]

Surrey

The A3's Kingston By-pass now ends sooner leaving a spur junction the A309 to the Scilly Isles junction near

Sandown Park, Esher, its route instead becoming the Esher By-pass on the border of Hook, London and Long Ditton, Surrey
. Here the speed limit rises to 70 mph, with 3 lanes and a motorway-grade hard shoulder.

After passing Claygate, the motorway-standard section has junctions with the A244 between Esher and Oxshott, then the A245 between Cobham and Hersham.[n 3] The road's Wisley Interchange with the M25 enables a flyover still with a 70 mph (110 km/h) speed limit.[n 4] It bypasses Wisley, Ockham, Ripley (and Burpham which is a suburb of Guildford) before cutting through the major town itself as a dual carriageway and changing to a 50 mph (80 km/h) speed limit.[8] It returns to 70 mph (110 km/h) at the A31 and A246 junction before bypassing Godalming and Milford. It continues through a tunnel at Hindhead (constructed in 2011 to improve capacity and bypass the Devil's Punch Bowl) before leaving Surrey.

Hampshire

The A3 enters Hampshire just after exiting the Hindhead Tunnel, passes

Liss, then passes Petersfield. The A3's original route between Hindhead and Petersfield, passing through several villages, became the B2070. At Liss, there remains an at-grade roundabout, the only such junction on the route. Over the South Downs, it passes Clanfield and Horndean. From just north of Horndean, (still heading towards Portsmouth) the A3 separates from the A3(M) (below) and continues as London Road as far as Hilsea, south of which it is Northern Parade[n 5]. It runs along the west side of Portsea Island which forms Portsmouth proper, roughly parallel with the M275, into the nearly waterfront centre of the city where, after passing the Catholic cathedral, it meets with the A2030. Here, it reaches Old Portsmouth, passing the Anglican cathedral and the 15th century harbour where it comes to an end at Broad Street[9] and Portsmouth Point
.

Hindhead tunnel

Main article: Hindhead Tunnel
single-carriageway road with central double white lines and passing between trees
The A3 near Hindhead prior to the tunnel opening

The Hindhead Tunnel is a 1,830-metre (1.14 mi) twin bore tunnel,[10] which cost £371 million to construct, and is the longest non-estuarial road tunnel in the UK. Transport Secretary Philip Hammond conducted the opening ceremony on 27 July 2011, though the northbound tunnel opened to traffic two days later than the southbound one, on 29 July.[11][12][13]

The new dual carriageway diverges from the original route where the old A3 began climbing sharply as it headed towards the scenic Devil's Punch Bowl. The old road now turns right and continues into Highfield Lane. From there, the remainder of the original road to Punch Bowl Common - a short distance north-east of the Hindhead traffic lights - has been completely ripped up and returned to nature. From the south, the short and largely built-up southern stretch of old A3 (now bypassed) runs up from the Grayshott exit into Hindhead and remains in use, but has been renumbered from A3 to A333.

Proposed developments

Ham Barn roundabout, Liss

Since the 2013 opening of the

Highways Agency announced it would discuss three options for the roundabout's future, but in December it announced that no change would be commenced before 2015:[15][16]

  • full-time signalling,
  • removing the roundabout entirely (and thereby removing the A3/B3006 connection completely),
  • keeping the existing system.

Cathedral exit, Guildford

The slip road exiting the A3 leading to the Royal Surrey County Hospital and the Surrey Research Park regularly creates congestion on the main A3 during peak times, when the traffic queue reaches onto the main carriageway. In May 2011, it was announced that this is to be resolved with new improvements to the traffic system directly adjacent to the A3, with work funded jointly by the University of Surrey and Surrey County Council.[17]

Related urban proposals and developments

Various schemes exist to manage urban traffic and economise land use, and include running park and ride services. The main such scheme along the route is in Guildford. In February 2015, the

Boston, Massachusetts; the Mayor said "rebuilding some of our complex and ageing road network underneath our city would not only provide additional capacity for traffic, but it would also unlock surface space and reduce the impact of noise and pollution." Similar plans have been proposed for other areas of London but proven cost-prohibitive.[18]

A3(M)

A3(M) shield
A3(M)
The A3(M) M27 interchange, Farlington.jpg
The junction between the A3(M) and the A27
Route information
Maintained by National Highways
Length5 mi (8.0 km)
Existed1979–present
Major junctions
Northeast endHorndean
Southwest endBedhampton
Location
Country
Primary
destinations
(London), (Portsmouth), (Chichester), (Petersfield), Waterlooville
Road network

This section of the road was opened in 1979[19] and acts as an alternative to the A3 road in this part of Hampshire.

Junctions

A3(M) motorway
Northbound exits Junction Southbound exits
Road continues as the A3 to Petersfield and London A3
Terminus
(J1) 		Horndean, Clanfield A3
Portsmouth, Hayling Island A3(M)
No exit Start of motorway
B2149
 J2
Rowlands Castle
B2149, Cowplain
B2150
 J3 Waterlooville, Purbrook, Leigh Park B2150
Purbrook, Leigh Park J4 No exit
Start of motorway J5
Terminus
A27 		Bedhampton, Farlington, Drayton
B2177
 Brighton, Chichester, Havant, Hayling Island A27(E)
Portsmouth, Southampton (M27) A27(W)

[20]

Cycling

There are several cycle routes which follow the route of the A3.

London

In London,

A300/Southwark Bridge Road towards the City. South of Clapham Common, CS7 runs along the A24 to Colliers Wood, via Balham and Tooting.[21]

Between

Cycle Superhighway 8 (CS8 to Millbank).[22][23]

Surrey and Hampshire

Shared-use paths and cycle lanes run alongside the A3 at points between the Greater London boundary and Portsmouth.

Between

slip roads exist for cyclists travelling along the cycle lanes
.

There is a cycle path between Liss and Petersfield which runs along the Portsmouth-bound (southbound) side of the A3. The route joins the A3 south of West Liss and leaves the dual-carriageway to the north of Petersfield (at Farnham Road). The route between Liss town centre and Farnham Road is part of National Cycle Route 22 (NCR 22).[24]

South of Petersfield, National Cycle Route 222 (NCR 222) follows the route of the A3 until the route reaches Waterlooville. The route passes through the Queen Elizabeth Country Park and passes along the eastern rim of Clanfield. The main cycle route between Petersfield and the Country Park follows NCR 22 through Buriton.[25]

See also

Notes and references

Notes
  1. ^ Main examples are Shelley Court and Byfield Court as to art nouveau by this stretch.
  2. ^ This section except on bank holidays is busy weekdays from about 7:50am to 8:30am and from 5:15pm to 5:50pm.
  3. Painshill Park, Brooklands, West Byfleet and western Woking
  4. ^ Hard shoulders, and outer barriers of the section thereafter are 'dual carriageway standard'.
  5. ^ London Road continues as the A2047
References
  1. ^ 'The borough of Guildford: Borough, manors, churches and charities' in A History of the County of Surrey: Volume 3, ed. H E Malden (London, 1911), pp. 560-570. British History Online, University of Portsmouth, the History of Parliament Trust and others accessed 20 November 2016.]
  2. ^ "The Road Board". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). House of Lords. 22 November 1911. col. 282–282.
  3. ^ "Arterial Roads - reply of the Parliamentary Secretary, Minister of Transport". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). House of Commons. 21 March 1923. col. 2541–2541.
  4. ^ "Comment by Clip-On". Power and Pedal with the Scooter. London: Power & Pedal Ltd: 115. March 1963.
  5. ^ "Natural England, Wimbledon Common citation" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 October 2012. Retrieved 27 December 2013.
  6. ^ "Map of Wimbledon Common SSSI". Natural England.
  7. ^ "Wimbledon Common". UK Special Areas of Conservation site list. DEFRA Joint Nature Conservation Committee. Retrieved 20 October 2014.
  8. ^ "Signs to remind drivers to stick to the 50 mile an hour speed limit" Archived 11 April 2010 at the Wayback Machine. Surrey Herald and Surrey Advertiser (getsurrey.co.uk) 6 April 2010. Retrieved 6 January 2013.
  9. ^ "Google Maps".
  10. ^ "A3 Hindhead Improvement – The Tunnel". Highways agency. Archived from the original on 10 March 2010. Retrieved 18 February 2010.
  11. ^ "A3 Hindhead Improvement". Highways Agency. Archived from the original on 29 June 2007.
  12. ^ "£371 million A3 improvements will go ahead". Government News Network. 26 October 2006. Archived from the original on 10 March 2007.
  13. ^ "A3 Hindhead Tunnel". Mott MacDonald. Archived from the original on 4 May 2007.
  14. ^ Selborne Civil Parish Council - campaign to replace or alter roundabout Archived 1 April 2010 at the Wayback Machine
  15. ^ "No changes for A3 roundabout". Petersfield Post. 29 December 2010. Retrieved 14 March 2013.
  16. ^ 'Ham Barn Options Outlined' 10 Nov 2010, Haslemere Messenger
  17. ^ Caulfield, Chris (13 May 2011). "End in sight for Guildford traffic hotspot - News". Surrey Advertiser. getsurrey. Retrieved 14 March 2013.
  18. ^ Sharman, Jon (9 February 2015). "Going underground? A3 at Tolworth could become a tunnel, says Boris Johnson". Kingston Guardian. Retrieved 15 February 2015.
  19. ^ "The Motorway Archive – M27 Dates Page". Iht.org. Archived from the original on 11 March 2007. Retrieved 14 March 2013.
  20. ^ Information above gathered from Advanced Direction Signs April/May 2012
  21. ^ "Cycle". Transport for London (TfL).
  22. ^ "Kingston Vale". OpenStreetMap. Retrieved 9 May 2020.
  23. ^ "Wandsworth". OpenStreetMap. Retrieved 9 May 2020.
  24. ^ "Route 22". Sustrans. Archived from the original on 9 May 2020. Retrieved 9 May 2020.
  25. ^ "Queen Elizabeth Country Park". OpenStreetMap. Retrieved 9 May 2020.

External links

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