Most bypassed stretch of road.

[JohnnyMo]

I don't mean the necessarily the most bypassed settlement, I mean the most bypassed stretch of road. For example, the road from Bristol to London used to go via Westerleigh and follow what I think is now the B4039

Is there a limit as to how long a stretch of road can be?

Because if there isn’t, you could arguably take a section of road which has been bypassed by a motorway or HQDC for a very long distance. I’m thinking of roads like the A6 between Derby and Preston (bypassed by A50 & M6) and the A30/A303 between Exeter and London (bypassed by M4 & M5, although this will no longer be the case once the 303 is fully dualled). Of course, these roads also have numerous shorter bypasses of towns and villages closer to the original route.

I was thinking the other way, does straightening a road count, when it leaves ox-bow lake lay-byes or junction improvements where a GSJ is added.

[Owain]

Two will be common in many places:
Original road through town centre
1. 50s/60s "inner" ring road
2. 60s onwards high speed bypass

Newbury. And Gloucester.

Worcester is odd, in that the M5 bypassed it to the east before the eastern section of the A4440 that runs parallel to it was added. It's as though the Stage 2 bypass was built decades before Stage 1.

How about A46 via Leicester?

1. Original A46 through city centre, now largely pedestrianised
2. Inner ring, A594
3. Outer ring, A564
4. M1/new A46 northern bypass

I think the outer ring round Leicester is the A563.

Still, both 594 (duplicated) and 563 are silly numbers to use down there!

[Chris Bertram]

I think the outer ring round Leicester is the A563.

Still, both 594 (duplicated) and 563 are silly numbers to use down there!

It is, my mistake, and I have driven round most of it at one time or another.

[Norfolktolancashire]

Thetford in Norfolk has a 1960's "inner" bypass which was the A11, now A1075. There was also a similar aged road to the north east, the old A134 which joined the old A11 at this roundabout.

www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.4188135,0.757 ... 312!8i6656

The A11 now bypasses the whole town to the west and north.

[trickstat]

There must be a few examples of roads that have been bypassed twice but 'in reverse'. By this I mean where a road has been bypassed by a route that bypasses the town or city but then there is a later bypass for more local traffic.

An example I can offer is the High Street in Stevenage Old Town. This was originally part of the Great North Road/A1 until the mid 60s when the A1(M) bypassed the town. Then in the late '70s a new dual carriageway and one-way system was built that meant that local traffic travelling, for example, between Hitchin and the New Town Centre no longer used the High Street.

[Peter350]

How about Market Place, Basingstoke:

1. Original Basingstoke bypass, now the Harrow Way
2. Ringway North
3. Ringway South
4. Churchill Way
5. M3 motorway
6. New Road

[ajuk]

I'm not sure if bypassed was the correct word, I maybe should have said "most replaced" stretch of road, some of which go back way before the car. For example, part of the road from Gloucester is now 6 levels deep, first it went through Tytherington, 100s of year ago it was moved to go through Wotton and Dursley, then still long before the car it went along the modern A38, part of that through Thornbury was moved to what was the B4061 and then part of that was straightened on a section that is now S3, then the M5 was built.

[KeithW]

I'm not sure if bypassed was the correct word, I maybe should have said "most replaced" stretch of road, some of which go back way before the car. For example, part of the road from Gloucester is now 6 levels deep, first it went through Tytherington, 100s of year ago it was moved to go through Wotton and Dursley, then still long before the car it went along the modern A38, part of that through Thornbury was moved to what was the B4061 and then part of that was straightened on a section that is now S3, then the M5 was built.

Take your pick of almost any major Roman Road. There are overlays of Roman roads in the UK for Google Earth and also Open Street Map. There is an excellent example in the form of Ermine Street which ran from London to York via Lincoln here

https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/ ... 31/-0.2513

It basically ran from London up what is now the A10 to Royston, along the A1198 to Huntingdon , the A14 to Alconbury and then the A1 as far as Colsterworth before heading up the A15 to Lincoln and the Humber then up the A1079 to York with an alternate route via Bawtry and Doncaster

Another well know example still in use is the Fosse Way
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fosse_Way

The Romans had in many ways a modern view of major roads as being Strategic Assets that were managed and funded at a central government level. This notion didnt really emerge again in the mainstream until after WW1 with the classification and numbering of roads.

The main gap in Roman Road coverage compared with the modern road network is the West Midlands. This was outside the core wealthy provinces of the South and lacked the easy water access for goods enjoyed by York and Chester nor was it seen as a militarily active area like Corbridge and Carlisle so was somewhat neglected. There has been a series of military roads from the Tyne to the Solway since the building of Hadrians Wall.

The A66 from Scotch Corner to Penrith was already a major route when the Romans arrived and indeed one of the major battles between the Brigantes and the Legions occurred close to where the Scotch Corner Junction is today. Similarly Catterick (Roman Cataractonium) was a major Roman Army outpost, it was the site of one of the first Norman castles built in England and remains the largest British Army garrison to this day.

The main problem in the period from the Romans to the 18th century was that most roads were maintained by the parish which meant they followed field boundaries and when they became too rutted to use it was often easier to simply abandon it and choose another lane. Things only improved with the Turnpike Roads of the 18th century in England, the Scottish Lowlands and Wales and the Military Roads in the Highlands. Before that by far the safest and fastest way to get from London to Newcastle was by sea.

http://www.turnpikes.org.uk/The%20Turnpike%20Roads.htm
https://www.campop.geog.cam.ac.uk/resea ... trusts.pdf
http://www.oldroadsofscotland.com/ayr%20contents.htm

[JohnnyMo]

There must be a few examples of roads that have been bypassed twice but 'in reverse'. By this I mean where a road has been bypassed by a route that bypasses the town or city but then there is a later bypass for more local traffic.

Redbourn must be the classic for that.

[owen b]

There must be a few examples of roads that have been bypassed twice but 'in reverse'. By this I mean where a road has been bypassed by a route that bypasses the town or city but then there is a later bypass for more local traffic.

Redbourn must be the classic for that.

There's numerous similar examples. Broughton on the A6, north of Preston, is a very recent one.

[B1040]

The B1050 (Hatton's Road) in Longstanton may not be the most bypassed road, but it did have the honour of two seaparate bypasses in fairly quick succession at the beginning of the 2000s.

[ajuk]

I don't mean the necessarily the most bypassed settlement, I mean the most bypassed stretch of road. For example, the road from Bristol to London used to go via Westerleigh and follow what I think is now the B4039

Is there a limit as to how long a stretch of road can be?

Because if there isn’t, you could arguably take a section of road which has been bypassed by a motorway or HQDC for a very long distance. I’m thinking of roads like the A6 between Derby and Preston (bypassed by A50 & M6) and the A30/A303 between Exeter and London (bypassed by M4 & M5, although this will no longer be the case once the 303 is fully dualled). Of course, these roads also have numerous shorter bypasses of towns and villages closer to the original route.

I was thinking the other way, does straightening a road count, when it leaves ox-bow lake lay-byes or junction improvements where a GSJ is added.

Yes, I'm counting Oxbows, just look at the examples I used in my OP.

[ajuk]

What about Radstock, You have the Bath Old Road, the Bristol Road and now the Bath New Road, all seem to have been in place by late Victorian times, of course before all that you had the Fosse Way which used to be the shorter route which bypassed Radstock, and following the part of the Fosse Way you can still use, you can enter Radstock along Combe End which is also on the Victorian maps, so I don't know what was the original way into Radstock from the Fosse Way in antiquity.

[NICK 647063]

Sometimes you can have unusual examples of this where a major road performs many roles and is “bypassed” yet still remains a major road but without these bypasses would be unimaginable.

So I would say the A64 York Road in Leeds this is the section between the Ex A63 Selby Road (Halton Dial) and the city centre....

So this section of the A64 is not only the Leeds to Scarborough road but back in the day due to the A63 Joining was actually part of the Hull to Liverpool trunk road of course first bypassed by the M62 which removed a chunk of freight traffic....

But the A64 was still providing the main link from Manchester and the M62 west to the A1 North and Newcastle so in 1999 the M1 east of Leeds opened this then bypassed that function of the route again showing a huge reduction in HGV’s.....

Then about 10 years ago the A64 was bypassed again removing its A63 role as the new A63 East Leeds link Road was opened....

So in really that section of the A64 has been bypassed 3 times removing 3 different functions, these days it’s main function is linking Leeds to York and Scarborough plus the A1 North, it’s through route function has been removed as in you can now pass around Leeds to access elsewhere but it’s still a major access into Leeds and even with all these functions removed it’s traffic is increasing as Leeds grows but if non of the above bypasses were built the A64 in Leeds would be gridlocked all day everyday, it’s basically opened up capacity on the A64 allowing Leeds to develop further, so while on the ground the A64 remains the A64 these bypasses have each in turn caused a reduction in traffic and helped growth in the area.

[A303Chris]

No ones mentioned the A120 at Great Dunmow

Originally straight through the village, then a single carriageway bypass, followed by the full blown dual carriageway route

[ajuk]

I think by using the word bypass I may have made a mistake because that largely envokes the modern idea of bypassing settlements, I should have called this, most replaced stretches of road.

[Runwell]

No ones mentioned the A120 at Great Dunmow

Originally straight through the village, then a single carriageway bypass, followed by the full blown dual carriageway route

Ditto Battlesbridge (1982 and 2003).

[WHBM]

I suppose the A6 has now been completely bypassed/replaced by the M6, 300 miles. I wonder if people really did once go London to Scotland through Buxton and down Market Street in the middle of Manchester.

[Chris Bertram]

I suppose the A6 has now been completely bypassed/replaced by the M6, 300 miles. I wonder if people really did once go London to Scotland through Buxton and down Market Street in the middle of Manchester.

... then through Preston, Lancaster and Kendal and over Shap summit. I think the answer is yes, some did. But a lot more probably took the train.

[Owain]

A40 Gloucester:

1. Original route through city centre, along Cheltenham Road, London Road, Northgate St, Westgate St
2. First by-pass, including Estcourt Road, St Oswald's Way, now A417/A38
3. Modern northern by-pass from Longlevens roundabout to Over roundabout, the current A40

But Gloucester is a festival of by-passes...

Thinking once more about good ol' Glaws, you could probably add to that list the original M4 (now M48) over the Severn Bridge, and then the newer M4 over the Prince of Wales Bridge (as I think it is called now). There must have been London-to-South Wales traffic that would have used A40-A437-A48 back in the 1920s/30s that would have used the M4 in later decades.