A303 road
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The A303 is a trunk road in England. It is the main road between Basingstoke in Hampshire and Honiton in Devon.
For a long time it was entirely free of traffic lights; however early in 2006 traffic lights were installed at Podimore roundabout, protecting every entrance. They were activated for the first time in the summer.
The M3, the A303 and the A30 together make up one of the main routes from London to South West England, running from London to Land's End in Cornwall. The journey can also be done using the M4 motorway, the M5 motorway and the A30.
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[edit] The route
The A303 was created out of a renumbering of several different routes to provide a long bypass for through traffic for a section of the A30, though parts of the route, such as the section past Stonehenge have been a right of way for people, wagons, and later vehicles for centuries.
The original route classifications were (listed from East to West):
- from A33 to Bullington Cross - unclassified roads, later B3379 to Micheldever and B3049 thereon
- from Bullington Cross to Andover - B3049
- from Andover to Stonehenge - A344
- from Stonehenge Wincanton to Ilchester - B3090, later A3036
- part of Ilchester bypass at Podimore - B3150, later A372 until bypass built.
- from Ilchester to South Petherton - A3036
- from South Petherton to Ilminster - A358
- from Ilminster to Marsh - B3169, later A3079
- from Marsh to A30 - B3170 later A3079
Of course, the current A303 has had various bypasses of the route above, mostly modern but some like the Thruxton bypass dating from the turnpike era, and the road now is almost continuously dual carriageway, except at Stonehenge and Chicklade in Wiltshire, and Sparkford and the Blackdown Hills in Somerset.
[edit] Proposed improvements
On 5 June 2003, 12.5 km (7.7 miles) of improvements, including the proposed 2.1 km (1.3 mile) bored Stonehenge road tunnel under land adjacent to Stonehenge were announced by the Secretary of State for Transport as part of a wider announcement of road improvements. On 4 September a public enquiry into whether the plans were adequate was announced; it concluded on, 11 May 2004, that they were, despite protests from charities and landowners that the tunnel should be longer.
The other proposed improvements were: Wylye to Stockton Wood, Chicklade to Mere, Sparkford to Ilchester and the Ilminster Bypass.
In November 2004 plans to improve the route through the Blackdown Hills were abandoned in favour of upgrading the A358 from Ilminster to the M5 motorway at Taunton to reduce traffic west of Ilminster.
On 31 October 2005 it was announced that there was to be a review of the options for Stonehenge, starting in January 2006.
The review presented 5 options - the published tunnel scheme, a cut and cover tunnel, a 'partial solution' (involving a roundabout but maintaining the current road), and two overland bypass routes, which are criticised as being damaging to both archaeology and biodiversity, including the Stone Curlew, Barn Owls, Bats, and the Chalk Grassland habitat [1].
The government are still considering which option to adopt after public consultation and the Highways Agency state that the project is subject to funding availability.
Numerous organisations are campaigning both for and against increasing capacity on the A303 past Stonehenge, including Save Stonehenge, and The Association of British Drivers. See also information about A344, which has a junction with the A303 near to the Stonehenge site.
[edit] The A303 in pop culture
Because of the A303's fame as the main route from London to the Glastonbury Festival and Stonehenge (also a festival site) it was the subject of a song, 303, by pop group Kula Shaker on their number one hit debut album "K" in 1996. It was also mentioned in the Levellers' song Battle of the Beanfield, about the attack by police on travellers celebrating the Solstice at Stonehenge (1st June, 1995): "Down the '303 at the end of the road, Flashing lights, exclusion zones". A sign for the road was also featured on the label for the Universal Indicator Yellow album (see the Discogs link), perhaps a dual reference to the Roland TB-303 synthesiser (featured heavily on Universal Indicator recordings) and to Cornwall the home of Universal Indicator artist Richard D. James.
[edit] References
- ^ BBC ONLINE - Stonehenge road 'a risk to birds' http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wiltshire/4637656.stm
[edit] Links
- Clark, A., 2004, "Darling to signal roadbuilding rethink" in The Guardian, Nov 27, 2004 [1].
- Highways Agency, 2005. A303 Stonehenge.
- Department for Transport, 2005, "Way forward announced for A303 Stonehenge review" [2].
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A roads in Zone 3 of the Great Britain road numbering system |
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|---|---|---|
| A3 | A30 - A31 - A32 - A33 - A34 - A35 - A36 - A37 - A38 - A39 | |
| A301 - A303 - A307 - A308 - A316 - A337 - A338 - A340 - A344 - A345 - A346 - A350 - A354 | ||
| A361 - A363 - A368 - A369 - A370 - A371 - A390 | ||
| A3036 - A3055 - A3203 - A3204 - A3400 | ||
| List of A roads in Zone 3 | ||
