M3 motorway (Great Britain)

M3
M3 highlighted in blue Show interactive map Shown with UK motorway network Show UK motorways map
E05
Maintained by National Highways
Length	59 mi (95 km)
Existed	1971–present
History	Opened: 1971 Completed: 1995
Major junctions
Northeast end	Sunbury-on-Thames 51°25′00″N 0°25′26″W / 51.4166°N 0.4240°W / 51.4166; -0.4240 (M3 motorway (northeastern end))
Major intersections	J2 → M25 motorway J14 → M27 motorway
Southwest end	Chilworth 50°57′16″N 1°24′29″W / 50.9545°N 1.4081°W / 50.9545; -1.4081 (M3 motorway (southwestern end))
Location
Country	Primary destinations	London Bracknell Aldershot Basingstoke Winchester Southampton Reading Newbury
Road network
Roads in the United Kingdom Motorways A and B road zones
← M2 → M4

The M3 is a

.

It was constructed as a dual three-lane motorway except for its two-lane section between junction 8 (

History

The motorway was originally approved as the "London to Basingstoke Motorway" with delays over funding for an extension to Southampton^[2] the road was built to relieve two single carriageway trunk roads that were congested.^{[n 1][3]}

In 1967, sections of the A33 from Popham, Hampshire, to a northeastern point of the Winchester Bypass were widened to dual carriageways; this only partially alleviated growing congestion, especially in Winchester, which led to the southern phase gaining approval.^{[n 2][3]}

Eastern section

The eastern section, from Sunbury-on-Thames in Surrey to Popham near Basingstoke opened in sections: first the Hampshire section in 1971, and then the Surrey section in 1974.^[4] The cost for this first phase was £46m.^[5] The completed road acts were as a continuation of the A316 Country Way, an express three-lane road from Apex Corner, Hanworth, in Greater London to Sunbury-on-Thames.

The section is one of five routes into the southern half of London which reach Inner London with at least a dual-carriageway - or dual-direction - road, the others being the

. However approximately one mile before reaching Inner London it combines with the routes of the A30 and M4 approaches.

Southern section

A first public inquiry for the "M3 London to Basingstoke Motorway: Popham to

The scope of the M3 extension was reduced to defer the difficult decision about the section around Winchester and it was built in two sections (from 'Popham to Bridget's Farm' and from 'Bridget's Farm to Bar End') in 1985.[4] When this opened, the temporary junction to the A33 parallel route was removed.

The section of the M3 from near Junction 12 (Eastleigh and Chandler's Ford) to the last, Junction 14 for the M27 replaced part of the A33, which was upgraded to motorway standard and opened in 1991.^[7]

In 2008, the busiest section of the motorway, at Chandler's Ford, carried a daily average of around 130,000 vehicles.^[10]

The southern section starts as a continuation of a single-lane avenue, Bassett Avenue and The Avenue in the

and Mountbatten Way providing dual to three lane highways starting at the northwest of the city.

Abandoned/suspended proposals

A service station was envisaged at Basingstoke upon the motorway's completion but not built – superseded by one just north of Fleet and another north of Winchester.^[11] Plans for a Basingstoke Services were again published in November 2017^[12]

Additions

An additional junction, numbered 4A, was opened in April 1992 for Fleet.^[13]

Detailed route

The M3 starts at Sunbury-on-Thames in Surrey on the edge of South West London as the continuation of the

.

Taking over the "Winchester Bypass" the M3 resumes to three lanes each way at Junction 9, continues directly south and then takes a small curve around the east of the city running through a deep cutting in

and ending at the Chilworth Roundabout on the edge of Southampton.

Road features

• The Spitfire Bridge carries the B3404 Alresford Road from Winchester over the M3 motorway and the parallel A272 (J9-J10 spur, known as the "Spitfire Link"). It replaced a concrete parabolic arch bridge under which a Curtiss P-40 had been flown by George Rogers in October 1941. It was generally assumed locally that the aircraft had been a Spitfire, hence the name.^[15]

• A private exit of the northern roundabout connected to Junction 4a provides access to the former^[16] UK headquarters of Sun Microsystems.^[17] As of 2018, this is now a new housing estate, Helios Park^[18]
• The section of the M3 between J2 and J4a has been converted into a smart motorway, with full opening on 30 June 2017.^[19]

Incidents

• In the early morning of 25 April 1999, the drum and bass DJ and record producer Valerie Olukemi "Kemi" Olusanya, known as
  Highways Agency conducted an investigation into the "long-term integrity and performance" of various types of road stud.^[22]
• On 1 April 2000, a zebra crossing was illegally painted across the northbound carriageway of the M3 between Junctions 4 and 4a.^[23]
• On 23 September 2017, two firebombs were thrown from a bridge onto the motorway between junctions 9 and 11 by 17-year-old Nicholas Elger (who suffered from a psychiactric illness) leading to an 11-hour closure costing the economy an estimated £40 million.
  Voss water used to transport the fuel. Elger told police he wished he had killed somebody and entered guilty pleas to two counts of arson recklessly endangering life.^[25]

Junctions

Data from

County	Location	mi	km	Jct	Destinations (NE-bound)	Destinations (SW-bound)	Notes
Surrey	Sunbury-on-Thames	15.0	24.2		Richmond		Continuation beyond A308
		15.3	24.6	1	Staines, Kingston, Sunbury		Northeastern terminus
	Thorpe–Chertsey boundary	21.3	34.2	2	Staines	Staines
	Bagshot–Lightwater boundary	28.1	45.2	3	A322 – Woking, Bracknell	A322 – Bracknell, Lightwater
Surrey–Hampshire boundary	Camberley–Farnborough boundary	32.6	52.5	4	A331 – Guildford, Farnham, Farnborough
Hampshire	Farnborough–Blackwater and Hawley boundary	34.4	55.4	4A	A3013 – Farnborough, Fleet
	Hartley Wintney–Fleet			Fleet services
	Hook–Odiham boundary	41.9	67.4	5	A287 to B3349 – Hook
	Old Basing–Basingstoke boundary	46.6	75.0	6	A33 – Basingstoke, Newbury, Alton, Reading	A339 – Basingstoke, Alton
	Dummer	51.8	83.3	7	A30 – Basingstoke
	Dummer–Popham boundary	53.1	85.5	8	No access	A303 – The South West, Andover, Salisbury	Southwest-bound exit and northeast-bound entrance
	Itchen Valley	59.9	96.4	Winchester services
	Winchester	63.9	102.8	9	A34 – The Midlands, Newbury	A272 – Winchester
		65.2	105.0	10	A31 to B3330 – Alton, Winchester	No access	Northeast-bound exit and southwest-bound entrance
	Twyford–Compton and Shawford boundary	67.2	108.1	11	A3090 – Winchester
	Eastleigh–Chandler's Ford boundary	70.0	112.6	12	A335 – Eastleigh	A335 – Eastleigh, Chandler's Ford
				13	A335 – Eastleigh, Chandler's Ford	A335 – Eastleigh
	Eastleigh–Chandler's Ford–Chilworth boundary				No access	Southampton Docks, Bournemouth	Southwest-bound exit and northeast-bound entrance
	Chilworth			14	No access	A33 – Southampton	Southwest-bound exit and northeast-bound entrance
	Chilworth–Southampton boundary				M27 east – Southampton Airport, Portsmouth		Southwestern terminus
Notes Distances in kilometres and carriageway identifiers are obtained from driver location signs /location marker posts. Where a junction spans several hundred metres and the data is available, both the start and finish values for the junction are shown.
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi   Incomplete access

See also

• List of motorways in the United Kingdom

Notes and references

Notes

References

1. ^ "M3 gets first 'orange' smart motorway emergency area".
2. ^ "The M.3 Motorway". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 1967.
3. ^ ^{a b} "The M.3 Motorway". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 1967. Oral Questions in the House of Lords 21 June 1967 vol 283 cc1385-7
4. ^ ^{a b} "M3 London to Southampton Route Management Strategy". Department for Transport. Archived from the original on 30 September 2007.
5. ^ "M3 (Sunbury-Popham)". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 1988.
6. ^ "M3 London to Basingstoke Motorway: Popham to Compton public inquiry". National Archives.
7. ^ ^{a b c} "M3. London to Southampton". The Motorway Archive. Archived from the original on 5 September 2006.
8. ^ Morgan Morgan-Giles (26 July 1976). "M3 MOTORWAY INQUIRY". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Retrieved 11 March 2013.
9. ^ "M3 London to Basingstoke motorway: Popham to Compton; public inquiry 1976". National Archives.
10. ^ "Annual Average Daily Traffic Flows". Department for Transport. Retrieved 28 September 2009.
11. ^ "Basingstoke". Motorway Services Online. Retrieved 31 December 2011.
12. ^ "New Basingstoke Services". 12 November 2017.
13. ^ "Highways Agency: M3 London to Southampton Route Management Strategy". Highways Agency. Archived from the original on 30 September 2007.
14. ^ Grid Reference Finder distance tools
15. ^ "Myth of pilot's bridge stunt". Southern Daily Echo. 31 October 2003.
16. ^ "DB Real Estate – Commercial Property Surveyors".
17. ^ "Off Site Highway Works and Contributions – Report of the County Surveyor". Roads & Development Sub-committee. Hampshire County Council. 26 October 1998. Archived from the original on 18 February 2005. Retrieved 23 March 2008.
18. ^ "New homes for sale in Hawley, Hampshire from Bellway Homes".
19. ^ "M3 junctions 2-4a: smart motorway". Highways England. 30 June 2017. Retrieved 13 July 2017.
20. ^ "DJ killed by flying motorway Cat's-eye". Southern Daily Echo. Retrieved 11 November 2009.
21. ^ "DJ History: Kemistry".
22. ^ "Written Answers – Cats-eyes: Safety Inspections". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). House of Lords. 13 December 1999. col. WA20.
23. ^ "Police hunt motorway jokers". BBC News. 1 April 2000. Retrieved 23 March 2008.
24. ^ "Winchester M3 arson: Teenager Nicholas Elger jailed". BBC News. 12 July 2018. Retrieved 19 December 2021.
25. ^ Bottle of 'artisan' water helped link £40million M3 'fire bomb' incident to Winchester teen Nicholas Elger
26. ^ Area 3 Driver Location Signs (map) – Highway Authority, 2009^{[citation needed]}

External links

Geographic data related to M3 motorway at OpenStreetMap

Map all coordinates using OpenStreetMap

Download coordinates as:

• KML
• GPX (all coordinates)
• GPX (primary coordinates)
• GPX (secondary coordinates)

KML file (edit • help)

Template:Attached KML/M3 motorway (Great Britain)

KML is from Wikidata

Wikimedia Commons has media related to M3 motorway.

• Chris's British Road Directory^{[Discuss – April 2013]}
  • Motorway Database – M3
  • 'Bad Junctions' – M3/A31 (Winchester)
• The Motorway Archive – M3