Oxford Ring Road

The Oxford ring road is a ring road around the city of Oxford, England. It is a dual carriageway for most of its length apart from a short section to the North between the Woodstock and Banbury Roads.

To the West and North the road is part of the A34. To the East and North-East it is part of the A40. To the South-East, it becomes the A4142. For a short stretch to the South it is part of the A423, something of an anomaly since the renumbering of the rest of the A423 south of Banbury when the M40 motorway was opened.

Construction

The first section of the Oxford ring road was built from Headington to Banbury Road in the mid-1930s and is now part of the A40.

In 1938 the southern by-pass was opened from the bottom of Hinksey Hill to Botley. The road was known as the "road to nowhere" and little used at that time. In 1962 it was extended north by a new bridge over the River Thames to Wolvercote, and the southern and western by-pass then became part of the A34. It was dualled in 1973.

The eastern section between Headington and Rose Hill was opened in 1959. The southern section between Hinksey Hill and Heyford Hill, including the new Isis Bridge over the River Thames, was opened in 1965. The ring road was completed when the short section between Rose Hill and Heyford Hill was opened in 1966.

References

• Hibbert, C. (ed) (1988) Encyclopedia of Oxford Macmillan ISBN 0 333 48614 5

External links

• Oxford ring road map from Oxford University