A41 road

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the road in France, see A41 autoroute.

A41 shield
A41
Rock Ferry by-pass - DSC02992.JPG
Looking towards the northern end of the Rock Ferry bypass near Birkenhead
Route information
Maintained by
List
  • Wolverhampton City Council
Existed1922–present
Major junctions
Southeast endLondon
Major intersections
M1 motorway


M25 motorway

M40 motorway

M42 motorway

M5 motorway


M54 motorway
Northwest endBirkenhead
Location
Country
Primary
destinations
London
West End
Brent Cross
Edgware
Watford
Hemel Hempstead
Aylesbury
Bicester
Solihull
Birmingham
West Bromwich
Wolverhampton
Whitchurch
Chester
Ellesmere Port
Birkenhead
Road network
←
A42

The A41 is a

motorways, it passes through or near Watford, Kings Langley, Hemel Hempstead, Aylesbury, Bicester, Solihull, Birmingham, West Bromwich, Wolverhampton, Newport, Whitchurch, Chester and Ellesmere Port
.

With the opening of the

A4141
.

Route

London to Kings Langley

The A41 in Edgware
A41 north of Watford to the east of junction 19 of the M25

The route begins at

A5183). The A41 continues alongside the M1 into Hertfordshire
. This section is known as Elton Way, as far as the roundabout with the B462.

Running parallel to the M1, it intersects with junction 5 (Berrygrove Interchange). The road continues north, passing over the

Roman road, Akeman Street, between Berkhamsted and Bicester. The London to Aylesbury section was a similar route to the Sparrows Herne Turnpike Road
.

Kings Langley to Tring

A41 west of Hemel Hempstead at its junction with the A414

North of the M25, the road is a near

Vale of Aylesbury
.

The Tring bypass was built in 1973 as the first section of the Watford-Aylesbury A41(M) motorway. On 6 July 1987, this section was downgraded to A41.[1] The Tring bypass ends with the junction with the B4635, B4009 (the former route through Aston Clinton) and B488.

The A41 from junction 20 of the M25 to the Tring bypass was built in the early 1990s and opened in two sections: the 7 miles (11 km) £23.9m Berkhamsted bypass opened September 1993 and the 5 miles (8.0 km) £32.7m Kings Langley bypass opened August 1993.

Tring to Bicester

Former southern terminus of the Tring bypass

On 3 October 2003, the dual carriageway section was extended to the 3-mile (4.8 km) £25m

bottleneck. It meets the A4157 at a junction as Tring Road, and the next roundabout is near Aylesbury Grammar School and a Tesco. It meets the A418 ring-road and becomes Exchange Street, then meets the A413 from Wendover at a roundabout and becomes Friarage Road, passing close to a Morrisons and the railway station. The A418 turns to the left and A41 continues straight ahead to become Gatehouse Road, then at the next roundabout, it leaves to left as Bicester Road near the Applegreen Aylesbury Service Station. After four roundabouts, it crosses the River Thame. It then meets a roundabout with access for the new Berryfields development as well as Aylesbury Vale Parkway before passing under a railway line, then through Waddesdon, then passes close to Westcott near the former airfield of RAF Westcott. At Kingswood, it passes the Crooked Billet (now the "Akeman Inn") and Plough and Anchor (now an Italian restaurant) pubs. It enters Oxfordshire and the district of Cherwell, and at Blackthorn it crosses the River Ray
and meets a low bridge which was originally a 14-foot (4.3 m) limit but due to bridge strikes, the road was lowered and the bridge now has a 15-foot (4.6 m) limit.

Plans for an Aylesbury bypass exist and are well supported locally but no government decision has been made.[2]

Bicester to Solihull

The £5.7m 2-mile (3.2 km) first stage of the Bicester bypass opened in November 1990, with the 2-mile (3.2 km) £3.9m second stage (part of the A421 section to Wendlebury) opened in May 1993, and has many roundabouts. Since 1993, the road now heads south-west where it officially becomes part of the

A34 (which also overlaps the M40 to Birmingham – to draw traffic off the previous routes). The former route went through Warwick. From here to the M42, the original route is now mainly designated as the B4100 (multiplexing at points with the current A361 and A422 through Banbury, plus the A452 and A425 approaching and through Warwick) followed by the A4177 and A4141, the latter two both excellent wide roads. At junction 5 of the M42, the A41 follows its old course. Further north, the road bypasses Solihull and goes through the city centres of Birmingham and Wolverhampton
. This renumbering took place in 1991. The A4141 and B4100 are new designations, while the A4177 is an extension of an existing route.

Solihull to Wolverhampton

The A41 bypass of Solihull

The road manifests from the junction which opened in November 1976 with the A4141 and M42 near

Hockley where it meets the northern section of the A4540. (The section from the A4540 to city centre is another part of the B4100). There is a staggered junction with the A4040 as the road passes through Handsworth (at this point known as Soho Road) which is a particular bottleneck with narrow lanes, on-street parking, bad drivers and several close-set junctions, often very badly congested. Just before The Hawthorns football stadium, home of West Bromwich Albion F.C., it leaves Birmingham and enters the borough of Sandwell. It meets the M5
at junction 1, where it also meets the A4252.

In 2004, there were plans to re-route the road between Birmingham & West Bromwich along the current

A4196
.

The new route opened in 1995 and is called the

A4037 at a roundabout and goes under the West Midlands Metro near Wednesbury Parkway tram stop. The A461 heads off to junction 9 of the M6 and Walsall. The A41 follows the old route from the next roundabout and enters the borough of Walsall. At the junction with the A4444 (the final phase of the Black Country New Road) it crosses the Walsall Canal
.

There are junctions with the A4098 (where the road enters the borough of Wolverhampton) and B4163. The road goes straight through the middle of

Staffordshire & Worcestershire Canal. It passes through Tettenhall, past Tettenhall College
.

Wolverhampton to Newport

After leaving the borough of Wolverhampton, it crosses the

Albrighton bypass. The road passes close by the RAF Museum at Cosford. After junction 3 of the M54 motorway, the road passes through Tong. The road meets the A5 at a roundabout, which is on the border with Staffordshire. At Weston Heath, there is a junction with the B5314. At the junction of the B4379, the road enters Telford and Wrekin. The 5-mile (8.0 km) £6m Newport bypass opened in early 1985. The former route went through Chetwynd Aston. The A41 meets the A518 for Telford
at a roundabout, followed by another roundabout with the A518 for travelling east, and then a roundabout with the A519 and the B5062.

Newport to Whitchurch

The road rejoins the old route and passes

RAF Ternhill, now an army base known as Clive Barracks. The road crosses the River Tern, meets the A53 at a roundabout at Ternhill. After Bletchley Manor, there is 3 miles (4.8 km) of dual carriageway. The road passes through Prees Higher Heath near a former airfield (RAF Tilstock), and meets the A49 at a roundabout near Tilstock. The 3-mile (4.8 km) £13.7m Whitchurch Bypass opened in July 1992, where the road meets the A49
.

Whitchurch to Birkenhead

Looking north from Backford Cross roundabout towards Great Sutton

The final stretch of the road leaves Shropshire and heads north through Cheshire on a modern alignment bypassing the villages of

A534 at Broxton Roundabout before passing Beeston, Bolesworth and Peckforton Castles. The road bypasses Chester, before running through the suburbs of Ellesmere Port (where the road was downgraded for safety reasons in the early 1990s). It heads to junction 5 of the M53 motorway and the Merseyside county boundary at Hooton. From this junction it is named New Chester Road, passing through Eastham and Bromborough. At Port Sunlight the A41 diverts onto a dual-carriageway section bypassing New Ferry and Rock Ferry before rejoining New Chester Road at Tranmere Oil Terminal. After passing Green Lane railway station, a 2.3 miles (3.7 km) spur of the A41 separates at the southern approach to the Queensway Tunnel, which passes under the River Mersey and enters Liverpool to meet the start of the A59
.

The road then passes a junction with the A554 near

Hamilton Square railway station, terminating at the bus station at Woodside. The end of the road has views over the Mersey to Liverpool and transport links to Mersey Ferry
services.

Major junctions

History of the road number

The original (1923) route was Stanmore north-west of London to Oakengates, west of Wolverhampton, in Shropshire, meeting the A5 at both ends.

The A41 was extended by numbering as follows:

The northern extension dates from 1935; in Shropshire, it swapped with a combination of the A464/A529; from Kingswood Common to Nantwich, Cheshire and the original A529 ran from Hinstock to Chester. North of Chester, the A41 replaced part of the A51.

The southern extension dates from after the

Second World War
using Watford Way which opened in about 1930 as the A5088. In the remaining years after 1935, it was renumbered A500.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ No direct access between the M1 and A41.

References

  1. ^ A41(M) at Pathetic Motorways. Accessed January 2009
  2. ^ Speak now if you want a bypass[permanent dead link] by Hartley-Parkinson The Bucks Herald, 21 March 2007. Accessed January 2009.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to A41 road (England).
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