A4099
A4099 | ||||
Location Map ( geo) | ||||
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From: | Halesowen (SO966846) | |||
To: | Blackheath (SO974864) | |||
Distance: | 1.3 miles (2.1 km) | |||
Meets: | A459, A4034 | |||
Former Number(s): | B4171 | |||
Highway Authorities | ||||
Traditional Counties | ||||
Route outline (key) | ||||
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The A4099 can best be described as "a hill". It links the A459 in Halesowen to the A4034 at Blackheath. The road was originally the southern end of the B4171 before gaining its present number in April 1925.
Starting at a traffic-light-controlled junction with the A459 to the north of Halesowen the road heads northwards climbing steadily. It used to pass under a bridge carrying the long-gone Old Hill-Halesowen-Longbridge railway and now goes past the relatively new Coombswood Royal Mail sorting offices. At the top of the hill there is another traffic-light-controlled crossroads with an unclassified road.
You now leave Halesowen (and Dudley MBC) and enter Blackheath (and Sandwell) and reach the first of two new roundabouts that were built when the large Sainsbury's supermarket opened in the late 1990s.
Originally the A4099 carried straight on here, round a brief one-way loop (which included an odd "two way traffic to the left and one way traffic to the right" TOTSO with Blackheath High Street) and met the A4034 at an island in the centre of Blackheath.
According to some maps, when Sainsbury's opened and they built Horner Way, the A4099 was diverted down here to meet the A4034 at a traffic-light-controlled junction - although this was never shown on the road signs.
Now though, with the completion of the Blackheath Bypass (possibly the most pointless bit of road building in recent years seeing as it's hardly ever used) the A4099 is indeed signed down Horner Way, and terminates on the A4034 at the start of the new bypass.