East Brent Roundabout
| East Brent Roundabout | |||
| Location Map ( geo) | |||
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| Aerial view of the roundabout | |||
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| Location | |||
| East Brent | |||
| County | |||
| Somerset | |||
| Highway Authority | |||
| Somerset | |||
| Junction Type | |||
| Roundabout | |||
| Roads Joined | |||
| A38, A370 | |||
| Junctions related to the A370 | |||
The East Brent Roundabout is the southern terminus of the A370. From here that road heads north through Weston-super-Mare and on to Bristol. The A370 ends on the A38, which (locally) runs through Somerset between Taunton in the south and Bristol in the north. As the roundabout lies just a couple of miles north of M5 J22, it is the main route to both Weston and Bristol Airport from the south, and for many years was also signed as Bristol (South).
The southern approach on the A38 has a long section of two lanes, the left one for A370 and the right one for A38 (North). However, neither of the other approaches have such long turning lanes, often causing more queueing traffic on these routes than the busier A38 to the south!
Routes
| Route | To | Notes |
| Bristol, Bristol Airport, Rooksbridge, Lower Weare, Cheddar | ||
| Taunton, (M5), Highbridge 4, Burnham-on-Sea 5½, Bridgwater 11 | ||
| Weston S Mare, East Brent, Lympsham, Bleadon |
History
Until the A370 and A38 were improved here in the late 1920s, the actual fork between the two routes stood a little further north at the southern end of East Brent's 'village green'. The former A38 route, along Old Bristol Road, was only closed off in the early 2000s as it had become a rat run for traffic between the A370 and northbound A38.
When the new stretch of A38 was built in c1929, the new junction between the two routes was a simple fork, with Old Bristol Road retained (albeit unclassified) as a link between the two northern routes. In 1968 the junction was rebuilt with the A38 dualled and the junction turned into a full triangle, with a new link roughly at the northern end of the roundabout, while the old line of the fork was a left turn sliproad. This design proved to be somewhat troublesome and quickly earned a bad reputation, being dubbed 'murder alley' by the media. It was therefore converted into the current oval roundabout less than two years later in 1970, in readiness for the completion of the M5 in the area in c1972.
Links
Hansard
- A38/A370 junction (East Brent) 9th December 1969
