Improved roads later bypassed.

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orudge
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Re: Improved roads later bypassed.

Post by orudge »

The A94 between Perth and Forfar (in particularly north of Coupar Angus) was improved as it was the fastest route between Perth and Aberdeen - it was “bypassed” when the now-A90 route was dualled. The A94 is still a very high quality road for a non-primary route.
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Steven
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Re: Improved roads later bypassed.

Post by Steven »

mfmman wrote: Sat Aug 14, 2021 20:25
RJDG14 wrote: Sat Aug 14, 2021 15:29

Do you know when the A420 Marshfield Bypass was built? I'd imagine it was sometime in the 1980s although I could be wrong.
Between 1966 and 1971 going by Old Maps
SABRE Maps shows open in 1970 according to the Route Planning Maps available; although the 1972 OS Quarter Inch map still shows it as under construction.

In addition, the idea that a motorway "officially" bypasses a single route is completely false.
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Re: Improved roads later bypassed.

Post by Andy P »

Isleworth1961 wrote: Sun Aug 15, 2021 08:34
ajuk wrote: Sun Aug 15, 2021 02:18 I think the main road from Bristol to London was the A4 only as far a Chippenham when the A420 became the more obvious route to Bristol, quite why the A4 is the road that goes through Bath, I don't know.
The old "Bath Road" from London to Bath was a long-established road - Bath was the 'go-to' place in the west, hence it's name for much of its route from London to Bath. When numbers were allocated, it presumably made sense to just allocate a number to the 'Bath Road' in its entirety (except for the bit that the yet to be built Great West Road was planned to replace through Brentford and Hounslow). Also, what became the A4 between Chippenham and Bristol was probably a more suited road - the actual road between Chippenham and Bath would have been wider and better surfaced, as would the road between Bath and Bristol, while much of the A420 was probably still more of a country lane by comparison back in the early 1920s. Long distance travel avoiding established stopping places with facilities wasn't yet such a thing back then either.
The A4 originally ended in Bath, and was extended to Avonmouth in 1935 following the construction of the Portway in the 1920s. riot to this extension, the Bath-Bristol road was the A36.

I think the normal route from London to Bristol before the M4 would always have been on the A420 from Chippenham.
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Re: Improved roads later bypassed.

Post by Gav »

1.jpg
Crawford -

The old A74 used to run up the main street as the carlisle road

then a shiny new A74 was built to bypass it...

shich in turn was bypassed by the A74(M)

you have three distinct roads in that area.
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Re: Improved roads later bypassed.

Post by Isleworth1961 »

Andy P wrote: Mon Aug 16, 2021 11:24 The A4 originally ended in Bath, and was extended to Avonmouth in 1935 following the construction of the Portway in the 1920s. riot to this extension, the Bath-Bristol road was the A36.

I think the normal route from London to Bristol before the M4 would always have been on the A420 from Chippenham.
Thee were plans for a bypass at Pickwick on the A4 near Corsham in the 1950s, and it even went as far as a public inquiry, but it was rejected. To me, that suggests that the A4 was very busy along that stretch even then, if there were plans such as this. As the Marshfield bypass on the A420 wasn't built until 1970-ish, it suggests to me that the A420 wasn't quite as busy, as the original route through the streets of Marshfield would probably have been a real issue for heavy volumes of traffic.
A 1920s Bartholomews map I have has the A4 marked (and also the A36, A37, A38), but the A420 nor any 3-digit A roads or any B roads are numbered yet, and what became the A420 is only identified as a secondary route.
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Re: Improved roads later bypassed.

Post by SteveA30 »

The opening of the M4 to the A46 in 1966 may have had a bearing on the Marshfield bypass construction, as heavy South Wales traffic was suddenly foisted on to a fairly quiet road. A46-A420-A4 at Chippenham was the obvious route for S.Wales traffic, avoiding Bath, Batheaston and Box, plus about half of Chippenham. Whether the bypass was brought forward because of that or, it was just a lucky coincidence, I don't know.
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Re: Improved roads later bypassed.

Post by Ross Spur »

Steven wrote: Sun Aug 15, 2021 09:59 SABRE Maps shows open in 1970 according to the Route Planning Maps available; although the 1972 OS Quarter Inch map still shows it as under construction.
Marshfield Bypass is shown as open on the 1970 and 1971 Esso and Shell Road maps produced by George Philip, but not on the 1968 Shell Road map. Other than that, the only mention I can find is the land Compulsory purchase order 1966 which was confirmed in 1967.
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Re: Improved roads later bypassed.

Post by owen b »

Ross Spur wrote: Tue Aug 17, 2021 17:02
Steven wrote: Sun Aug 15, 2021 09:59 SABRE Maps shows open in 1970 according to the Route Planning Maps available; although the 1972 OS Quarter Inch map still shows it as under construction.
Marshfield Bypass is shown as open on the 1970 and 1971 Esso and Shell Road maps produced by George Philip, but not on the 1968 Shell Road map. Other than that, the only mention I can find is the land Compulsory purchase order 1966 which was confirmed in 1967.
It's also open in my 1970 AA Book of the Road atlas. It looks like the 1972 OS map is an outlier.
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Re: Improved roads later bypassed.

Post by Steven »

owen b wrote: Tue Aug 17, 2021 19:45
Ross Spur wrote: Tue Aug 17, 2021 17:02
Steven wrote: Sun Aug 15, 2021 09:59 SABRE Maps shows open in 1970 according to the Route Planning Maps available; although the 1972 OS Quarter Inch map still shows it as under construction.
Marshfield Bypass is shown as open on the 1970 and 1971 Esso and Shell Road maps produced by George Philip, but not on the 1968 Shell Road map. Other than that, the only mention I can find is the land Compulsory purchase order 1966 which was confirmed in 1967.
It's also open in my 1970 AA Book of the Road atlas. It looks like the 1972 OS map is an outlier.
It's shown identically in the 1970, 1971 and 1972 OS Quarter Inch editions, but a clue may be held in the revision codes, C, C/* and C/*/* respectively - meaning that as the 1971 and 1972 were not full revisions, it's possible that the bypass completion was missed in the update process.
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Re: Improved roads later bypassed.

Post by ForestChav »

https://goo.gl/maps/GB8zHdXv5V9qibk4A

This bit of the current A6211 probably counts and will eventually double count.

The A612 originally entered Nottingham on the line of the current B686, and that is the number this stretch originally opened as, before a new section of bridge opened near the city centre in the early 90s, then the numbers were switched.

In the mid '00s then this section of then A612 was bypassed with this
https://goo.gl/maps/Ta93T61ZyEhYy9hZA
The remaining section then became an extension of the A6211 which previously terminated on the A612 here
https://goo.gl/maps/DvzAji4dLUJaocAh6

Now the A6211 is itself being bypassed on a completely new alignment between the A612 here
https://goo.gl/maps/yT7hEttLNAWvseEa7
and the B684 here
https://goo.gl/maps/pksTdYv4Kq8idpip8
so that section will probably go back to being an extension of the B686 to the A612
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Re: Improved roads later bypassed.

Post by Rillington »

Conekicker wrote: Tue Aug 10, 2021 06:56 The B1230 through Gilberdyke, it used to be the A63 until the M62 was built.
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.75551 ... !1e3?hl=en
And parts of it were dual carriageway.
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Re: Improved roads later bypassed.

Post by R Iason »

Both sections of the A92 heading out of Aberdeen were upgraded to D2 at various points before being bypassed completely by western peripheral recently (also regaining its former route which was lost when the route of the A90 was extended in the 90s).
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Re: Improved roads later bypassed.

Post by ajuk »

I didn't realise part of the old route of the A417 outside Gloucester was given a climbing lane.
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Re: Improved roads later bypassed.

Post by skiddaw05 »

It can be worth looking out for laybys on bypassed sections of road, for example the former A47 at Tilney All Saints appears to have been realigned at some point, and it's now all replaced by the snazzy grade separated dual carriageway stretch which almost gets to King's Lynn
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Re: Improved roads later bypassed.

Post by MotorwayGuy »

The former A14 (originally A604) which has recently been bypassed was mostly an online upgrade from original the single-carriageway road, apart from at Fenstanton and of course Huntingdon.
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