A414 road

The A414 is a major road in England. It runs from the A41 at a junction west of Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire, through the town to junction 8 of the M1 motorway at Buncefield, and running parallel to the M1 until junction 7, heading south of St Albans, east through Hatfield, Hertford, then across the A10 and into Essex through Harlow, Chipping Ongar and Chelmsford before terminating at Maldon.

History

The section between the M1 and the Park Street roundabout junction south of St Albans was formerly classified as the M10 motorway. This was downgraded to A road status on 1 May 2009,^[2] following the completion of the M1 widening between junctions 7 and 8 of the M1.

Between the (former) M10 Junction 1 at Park Street, and the A1 junction, the A414 is named the North Orbital Road which reflects the planners' intent to build an outer orbital road around London.

The North Orbital Road route was never completed, the planners opting in the end to build the M25 orbital motorway instead. The section of the M25 between the Hunton Bridge Interchange, Watford (J19) and Maple Cross, Rickmansworth (J17) originally opened as the A405 ahead of the completion of the M25.

This route has always connected Hemel Hempstead and Maldon, but over the years it has changed so much that it is almost completely new. The original route from Hemel Hempstead to St Albans followed the course of what is now the A4147, then from St Albans to Hatfield on the course of what are now the A1057 and B6426. The villages of Cole Green, Birch Green, and Staines Green were bypassed in the 1990s by a new dual carriageway that linked into the 1970s Hertingfordbury bypass. On the other side of Hertford, the A414 took what is now the A119 Ware Road, and then diverged along the course of the current B1502 and B181 from Hertford to Stanstead Abbotts. Between November 2009 and April 2011 the section between junction 7 of the M11 and Southern Way in Harlow was widened from three to four lanes and the Southern way roundabout completely remodelled.

Most of the Essex section (between the Talbot at Tylers Green and Writtle) was originally the A122. The original A414 road bypassed Harlow to the north, travelling through High Wych on what is now an unclassified road, and travelling through Sawbridgeworth to meet what is now the A1060 at Hatfield Heath, which it followed through to Chelmsford. In Chelmsford itself, the road numbers have been subject to change several times over the last three or four decades, with the A12, A130 and A414 having been rerouted many times over that period.

References

A roads in Zone 4 of the Great Britain road numbering scheme A4 A40 A41 A42 A43 A44 A45 A46 A47 A48 A49 A403 A404 A405 A406 A412 A413 A414 A415 A417 A418 A419 A420 A421 A422 A423 A425 A426 A427 A428 A429 A431 A432 A433 A435 A441 A442 A444 A445 A446 A448 A449 A452 A453 A454 A456 A458 A461 A465 A468 A469 A470 A472 A473 A474 A475 A476 A477 A478 A482 A483 A484 A485 A486 A487 A488 A489 A490 A491 A493 A494 A496 A497 A498 A499 A4005 A4006 A4008 A4010 A4012 A4018 A4025 A4032 A4037 A4040 A4042 A4050 A4053 A4054 A4055 A4059 A4060 A4061 A4063 A4067 A4069 A4074 A4076 A4080 A4085 A4094 A4103 A4107 A4109 A4110 A4113 A4117 A4118 A4119 A4123 A4130 A4133 A4135 A4136 A4138 A4142 A4146 A4148 A4150 A4155 A4160 A4161 A4169 A4173 A4174 A4202 A4212 A4216 A4217 A4221 A4226 A4230 A4232 A4234 A4240 A4241 A4260 A4361 A4400 A4536 A4540 List of A roads in Zone 4 List of B roads in Zone 4

Coordinates: 51°44′58″N 0°08′04″E / 51.74935°N 0.13441°E / 51.74935; 0.13441