M49 Avonmouth junction

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Micro The Maniac
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Re: M49 Avonmouth junction

Post by Micro The Maniac »

Ummm... so that makes most of Devon and Cornwall Zone 4 (ie all west of the M5)...

I guess it's hypothetical, as there is about zero chance of a new motorway in the south west...
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c2R
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Re: M49 Avonmouth junction

Post by c2R »

Here's a video of the bridge being lifted into place:

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AAndy
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Re: M49 Avonmouth junction

Post by AAndy »

Nearing completion now.......

Good to see a Quirky new junction ...this has an inside slip road.....likely only for farm use but still an oddity...inside slip and then its own tunnel!
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Re: M49 Avonmouth junction

Post by Bryn666 »

AAndy wrote: Sat Dec 21, 2019 11:36 Nearing completion now.......

Good to see a Quirky new junction ...this has an inside slip road.....likely only for farm use but still an oddity...inside slip and then its own tunnel!
Interesting, presumably it will have a TRO to prevent unauthorised use.
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Nathan_A_RF
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Re: M49 Avonmouth junction

Post by Nathan_A_RF »

Are there any recent pictures of this? It would be interesting to see this slip road.
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gepree68
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Re: M49 Avonmouth junction

Post by gepree68 »

2019-12-27 A403.png
2019-12-27 M49 A403.png
The new junction (at the purple blob on Severn Road, and on the photograph) is what will presumably soon be where a new road will go north along the dotted red line up to Palmer Avenue.

When the roads are connected up, M49 J1 should allow you to travel from M49 onto Palmer Avenue, then south (on the dotted red line) to Severn Road.

Do we yet know whether Palmer Avenue and the middle bit of Severn Road will become A403?
Last edited by gepree68 on Fri Feb 17, 2023 15:05, edited 1 time in total.
Micro The Maniac
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Re: M49 Avonmouth junction

Post by Micro The Maniac »

I'll resurrect this thread, rather than create a new one...

Yesterday, I found myself on the M49 southbound for the first time in eons... but I got thoroughly confused. There I was, minding my own business, and passing the M5 exit (leading to the M5 southbound) and my satnav announces I'm now on the M5! More puzzling, the big blue signs say indicate the A4 - not (A4)... and lo-and-behold, the DLSs show M5/T becoming M5/U when the M5 northbound slip merges, then M5/W

Coming back out the DLSs show M5/X then M5/V before becoming M49/V then M49/B when I joined the mainline.

So apart from a Sabristi-eque pedantic comment about A4 verses (A4) can someone explain to me why the M49 turns into an M5 spur for no obvious reason? Why is the last (near enough) mile not still M49?
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Re: M49 Avonmouth junction

Post by DavidBrown »

Basically because the M5 spur was there a long, long time before the M49. M5 J18 was originally just a standard trumpet with short spur to the southern A4 roundabout. Then the spur got its own spur towards the A403 (though again, even more confusingly IMO, the road numbering is a mess as it's actually still the A4 for one more roundabout), then the M49 came along with the construction of the Second Severn Crossing.
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Re: M49 Avonmouth junction

Post by A9NWIL »

DavidBrown wrote: Thu Mar 12, 2020 15:35 Basically because the M5 spur was there a long, long time before the M49. M5 J18 was originally just a standard trumpet with short spur to the southern A4 roundabout. Then the spur got its own spur towards the A403 (though again, even more confusingly IMO, the road numbering is a mess as it's actually still the A4 for one more roundabout), then the M49 came along with the construction of the Second Severn Crossing.
So if that bit of A4 is under motorway conditions it should in theory be the A4(M) should it not?
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Re: M49 Avonmouth junction

Post by DavidBrown »

lotrjw wrote: Thu Mar 12, 2020 15:43 So if that bit of A4 is under motorway conditions it should in theory be the A4(M) should it not?
No, as the spur isn't part of the A4, it's part of the M5. The A4 effectively bypasses the whole lot, with the two roundabouts providing access to the M5.
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gepree68
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Re: M49 Avonmouth junction

Post by gepree68 »

DavidBrown wrote: Thu Mar 12, 2020 15:35
  1. M5 J18 was originally just a standard trumpet with short spur to the southern A4 roundabout.
  2. Then the spur got its own spur towards the A403 [...],
  3. then the M49 came along with the construction of the Second Severn Crossing.
Didn't stages 2 and 3 happen at about the same time (around 1996)?

When M49 opened they really should have renamed some of the existing M5 J18 slip roads from M5 to M49.

M49 would then have had 5 junctions:
  1. M4 J22 (today's M4/M49 junction at the English end of the Second Severn Crossing)
  2. M49 J1 - junction with A403 - opening in 2020, a few months from now
  3. M49 J2 - junction with M5 J18
  4. M49 J3 - junction with A4 (to original roundabout on A4)
  5. Unnumbered junction (or part of J3) with A4 (A403) roundabout
2020-03-12 M5 M49 A4.png
Last edited by gepree68 on Thu Mar 12, 2020 16:33, edited 5 times in total.
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jackal
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Re: M49 Avonmouth junction

Post by jackal »

gepree68 wrote: Thu Mar 12, 2020 15:59
DavidBrown wrote: Thu Mar 12, 2020 15:35
  1. M5 J18 was originally just a standard trumpet with short spur to the southern A4 roundabout.
  2. Then the spur got its own spur towards the A403 [...],
  3. then the M49 came along with the construction of the Second Severn Crossing.
Didn't stages 2 and 3 happen at about the same time (around 1996)?
Indeed, I thought 2 and 3 were actually part of the same project.

Also the original layout in 1969 was just a couple of slips forming a temporary terminus for the M5, converted to a full trumpet when the Avonmouth Bridge was completed in 1974.

M5 J18 1971 - Copy.PNG
Micro The Maniac
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Re: M49 Avonmouth junction

Post by Micro The Maniac »

Thanks all... it sort of makes sense!
gepree68 wrote: Thu Mar 12, 2020 15:59 When M49 opened they really should have renamed some of the existing M5 J18 slip roads from M5 to M49.
Agreed.
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Re: M49 Avonmouth junction

Post by M5Lenzar »

Was the M49 number even necessary? It was at the time just a (very) long sliproad.
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Re: M49 Avonmouth junction

Post by Steven »

M5Lenzar wrote: Fri Mar 13, 2020 07:31 Was the M49 number even necessary? It was at the time just a (very) long sliproad.
Yes - the original guidance for whether motorway spurs got their own number back in the day was whether it was longer than a mile or not.
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Re: M49 Avonmouth junction

Post by M5Lenzar »

Steven wrote: Fri Mar 13, 2020 07:49
Yes - the original guidance for whether motorway spurs got their own number back in the day was whether it was longer than a mile or not.
Tell that to the Heathrow Spur!
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Re: M49 Avonmouth junction

Post by Steven »

M5Lenzar wrote: Fri Mar 13, 2020 08:33
Steven wrote: Fri Mar 13, 2020 07:49
Yes - the original guidance for whether motorway spurs got their own number back in the day was whether it was longer than a mile or not.
Tell that to the Heathrow Spur!
0.9 miles long south of the roundabout... :wink:
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gepree68
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Re: M49 Avonmouth junction

Post by gepree68 »

M5Lenzar wrote: Fri Mar 13, 2020 07:31 Was the M49 number even necessary? It was at the time just a (very) long sliproad.
It was right to be given a number (M49), but that number should have started with a 3:
Motorway numbering conventions suggest that - because the M49 lies south of the M4 - it should really have a number beginning with a 3. M39, perhaps?
So let us renumber M49 to M39.
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Re: M49 Avonmouth junction

Post by DB617 »

Perhaps this has been discussed previously, but do we think this junction will give rise to some residential cookie cutter developments off the east side of the junction, forming some weird car dependent new village near Easter Compton? I can't see an entire motorway junction having a total lack of circling development vultures.
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Re: M49 Avonmouth junction

Post by gepree68 »

DB617 wrote: Fri Mar 13, 2020 11:21 Perhaps this has been discussed previously, but do we think this junction will give rise to some residential cookie cutter developments off the east side of the junction, forming some weird car dependent new village near Easter Compton? I can't see an entire motorway junction having a total lack of circling development vultures.
2020-03-13 M49 J1.png
On the roundabout above M49 J1 (see photo) there is a stub on the bottom left of the photo (on the East side of M49) that in the future could be connected to B4055 near Easter Compton.
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