Trunk road

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A63(T) trunk road

A trunk road, trunk highway, or strategic road is a major road—usually connecting one or more cities, ports, airports, etc.—which is the recommended route for long-distance and freight traffic. Many trunk roads have segregated lanes in a dual carriageway, or are motorway standard.

1 United Kingdom
2 Ireland
3 United States
4 China
5 Hong Kong
6 France
7 See also
8 References

[edit] United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, Trunk Roads were first defined for Great Britain in the Trunk Roads Act 1936. Thirty major roads were classed as Trunk Roads and the Minister of Transport took direct control of them and the bridges across them. This development did not extend to Northern Ireland, which has always had a separate system of highway and road traffic law.

At that time, 4,500 miles of British road were classified as Trunk Roads. Additional roads have been 'trunked', notably in the Trunk Roads Act 1946. Others, like virtually all British motorways, have entered the system as a result of new construction. As of 2004, Great Britain has 7,845 miles (12,625 km) of Trunk Roads, of which 2,161 miles (3,478 km) are motorways. [1] Trunk roads in England are managed by the Highways Agency. Scotland has had responsibility for its own trunk roads since 1955, these are currently managed by Transport Scotland. Wales has had responsibility for its trunk roads since 1965. England has 4,814 miles (7,747 km), Scotland has 1,982 miles (3,190 km) and Wales has 1,048 miles (1,687 km) of trunk roads, inclusive of motorways. The Highways Agency also have a full network map of trunk roads and motorways in England.

Most interurban trunk roads are "primary routes", the category of recommended roads for long distance and freight transport, but not all primary routes are trunk roads, the difference being that trunk roads are maintained by central government bodies rather than the local councils. Primary routes are identified by their direction signs, which feature white text on a green background with route numbers in yellow. Trunk roads, like other 'A' roads, can either be single- or dual-carriageway.

Trunk roads were often listed on older maps with a "T" in brackets after their normal numbers so as to distinguish them from non-trunk parts of the same road, however this addition is no longer included on current Ordnance Survey maps which simply distinguish between primary and non-primary 'A' roads. A trunk road which has been upgraded to motorway standard can sometimes retain its original "A" number but with an "M" in brackets to denote that motorway regulations apply on it. Long distance examples of this are the A1(M) in England, and the A74(M) in Scotland.

It is possible for roads to become 'de-trunked' to County 'A' Roads, for example when superseded by a motorway following a similar route. When a road is 'detrunked' it is often not visible to the normal user when it retains its numbers. In some places however, the road number will change and will usually be signposted in the style "B000, was A00", although repeated changes can lead to such nonsense as "A5, was A5" (between St Albans and Redbourn). In England the government has de-trunked much of the trunk road network since the late 1990s transferring responsibility to local councils to allow the Highways Agency to concentrate on a selection of core trunk routes, mostly dual carriageways and motorways.

[edit] Ireland

In Ireland some roads were classified under an old British system as Trunk routes, and had route numbers prefixed by "T". Another old designation was Link, or "L", road. Although a number of old road signs using these designations may still be encountered, Ireland has long since adopted a newer classification scheme of National Primary and Secondary Routes ("N" roads), Regional roads ("R" roads), and local roads (administratively referred to by "L"-prefixed numbers, though these numbers are rarely shown on signs).

[edit] United States

Though the term trunk road is not commonly used in American English, the U.S. highway and Interstate highway systems can be considered American trunk highways. However, individual states are responsible for actual highway construction and maintenance, even though the federal government helps fund these activities as long as the states enact certain laws and enforce them. (Such laws have included the raising of the minimum drinking age and the lowering of speed limits.) Each state maintains all of its roads and tries to integrate them into a system appropriate for that state. Notably, the states of Michigan and Wisconsin designate their highways as "state trunklines" and "state trunk highways," respectively.[2]

[edit] China

China has begun development of the National Trunk Highway System (NTHS), which will create many east-west and north-south highways, plus seven radials heading out of the capital, Beijing.