M4 to A4

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SteveA30
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M4 to A4

Post by SteveA30 »

Bridge works returned long distance traffic to the A4 both ways from Newbury to Hungerford last weekend. Supposedly all weekend but, they finished the job on Saturday evening. Good job I went on the Saturday then...... Possibly more to come in September. Another example of the trend since 2019 for overnight or weekend closures in peak summer. Okehampton was the first I noticed in July 2019, causing old style holiday queues through there. Previously, it was up to June then, September onwards.

Anyways.....left it a bit late as there was no hurry but, the M27 ground to a halt before J2 so, took the old road via Romsey as did quite a few others, then A3057 to Stockbridge, A30 to Sutton Scotney, in the unsigned back entrance to the services and up a clear A34 right into the heart of the matter. A solid queue from the M4 to the A4 junction, which I promptly joined after leaving the A34. Weather was changeable......
Attachments
Sunny intervals with some showers
Sunny intervals with some showers
Westbound as a sunny interval reveals itself.
Westbound as a sunny interval reveals itself.
Barnstaple service
Barnstaple service
Last edited by SteveA30 on Fri Aug 27, 2021 07:33, edited 1 time in total.
Roads and holidays in the west, before motorways.
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SteveA30
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Re: M4 to A4

Post by SteveA30 »

Looking east from an old road layby.
Most popular activities.
1. Botany. Many carried out a study of the bushes, although this was completed in less than a minute generally.
2. Dog walking and feeding.
3. Having a cuppa
4. Leg stretch/phone call
5. Two van drivers seperately decided to use the layby as an overtaking lane, by rushing straight through....... :roll: :thumbsdown:
Attachments
A4 2.jpg
A4 e.jpg
A4 g.jpg
Last edited by SteveA30 on Thu Aug 26, 2021 21:34, edited 1 time in total.
Roads and holidays in the west, before motorways.
http://trektothewest.shutterfly.com
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SteveA30
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Re: M4 to A4

Post by SteveA30 »

So, sun/rain, stop/start, wide road/narrow road, A4/A338. The A4 can take the heavy traffic, the A338 certainly can't, as in the last pic.
Attachments
A4 f.jpg
A4 j.jpg
A4 l.jpg
Roads and holidays in the west, before motorways.
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Owain
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Re: M4 to A4

Post by Owain »

SteveA30 wrote: Thu Aug 26, 2021 21:14 The A4 can take the heavy traffic....
I'm glad to hear it, Steve!

Your posts and photos have reminded me of this old thread. Even though the A4 was quiet when I first drove it, I could sense its former grestness. You've given us a glimpse of how it would have been today, had the M4 never come along.
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ForestChav
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Re: M4 to A4

Post by ForestChav »

Owain wrote: Fri Aug 27, 2021 02:04
SteveA30 wrote: Thu Aug 26, 2021 21:14 The A4 can take the heavy traffic....
I'm glad to hear it, Steve!

Your posts and photos have reminded me of this old thread. Even though the A4 was quiet when I first drove it, I could sense its former grestness. You've given us a glimpse of how it would have been today, had the M4 never come along.
Well, actually it probably wouldn't be. At the time they clearly thought - and probably correctly - that the best way to relieve the A4 and provide a long distance route from London to the West (Bristol/Bath area then over to Wales) wasn't necessarily to directly upgrade the A4, by that I mean making the rural sections online (or near as) upgrades to D2 and then bypassing the towns, but to provide a new motorway route along basically the same corridor. Although the actual solution looks like it presumably started off as bypassing the A4 at places like Maidenhead, Slough etc closer to London, further away it passes the likes of Chippenham and Marlborough at a less obvious distance. The only issue now with these places is that they don't have a bypass where other places their size would probably have one - Marlborough high street is basically the A4 with the shops on the side, and the market place/car parking in the centre of the road. I did most of this mainly between Bath and Newbury a few weeks back and you wouldn't expect much has changed to the A4 in that time - it's largely quiet, open road, reasonably wide S2 and presumably mainly local traffic uses it. Anything going the distance would normally use the A4.

So, if the situation in the initial post is anything to go by you'd expect these small towns would be pretty rammed up with traffic but the A4 in between them would largely cope. And in Owain's situation of the M4 never coming along, you'd see the likes of Marlborough, Hungerford, Newbury, Chippenham etc all being bypassed by the A4 which would probably be a dual carriageway with no alternative route.

Wise planning to get the original motorways to follow in general the lines of existing A-roads which they then don't really touch. Most of them do.
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solocle
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Re: M4 to A4

Post by solocle »

ECB57FB8-B60A-41A9-B197-9E33D24CC020.jpeg
I love a good motorway bypassed road. When things are right, they're rather quiet! In the case of the A4, probably a perfect long distance route from London to Bristol, except for the odd section. Not really my area, I've only done brief stints along it while travelling in a more general north/south direction.

Equally I did Oxford-London down the A40 - a nice easy route across the Chilterns. I joined it at Lewknor (although anything after M40 J8A is fine), and left it at Denham for the A4020.

The A30, however, gave the impression of a road that was only quiet because it was nighttime. Despite not being far from the parallel M3.
07D574D1-36F0-4ED9-BD53-778FA4801F7A.jpeg
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Owain
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Re: M4 to A4

Post by Owain »

ForestChav wrote: Fri Aug 27, 2021 07:37
Owain wrote: Fri Aug 27, 2021 02:04
SteveA30 wrote: Thu Aug 26, 2021 21:14 The A4 can take the heavy traffic....
I'm glad to hear it, Steve!

Your posts and photos have reminded me of this old thread. Even though the A4 was quiet when I first drove it, I could sense its former grestness. You've given us a glimpse of how it would have been today, had the M4 never come along.
Well, actually it probably wouldn't be. At the time they clearly thought - and probably correctly - that the best way to relieve the A4 and provide a long distance route from London to the West (Bristol/Bath area then over to Wales) wasn't necessarily to directly upgrade the A4, by that I mean making the rural sections online (or near as) upgrades to D2 and then bypassing the towns, but to provide a new motorway route along basically the same corridor. Although the actual solution looks like it presumably started off as bypassing the A4 at places like Maidenhead, Slough etc closer to London, further away it passes the likes of Chippenham and Marlborough at a less obvious distance. The only issue now with these places is that they don't have a bypass where other places their size would probably have one - Marlborough high street is basically the A4 with the shops on the side, and the market place/car parking in the centre of the road. I did most of this mainly between Bath and Newbury a few weeks back and you wouldn't expect much has changed to the A4 in that time - it's largely quiet, open road, reasonably wide S2 and presumably mainly local traffic uses it. Anything going the distance would normally use the A4.

So, if the situation in the initial post is anything to go by you'd expect these small towns would be pretty rammed up with traffic but the A4 in between them would largely cope. And in Owain's situation of the M4 never coming along, you'd see the likes of Marlborough, Hungerford, Newbury, Chippenham etc all being bypassed by the A4 which would probably be a dual carriageway with no alternative route.

Wise planning to get the original motorways to follow in general the lines of existing A-roads which they then don't really touch. Most of them do.
You're right about upgrades like bypasses and dualling, of course. The A4 cedes priority to several green-signed routes in urban areas between Reading and Chippenham because it was superceded by the M4 to the north. Surely that would never have been so, had the motorway not been built.

I was thinking more of the rural sections, where some lengthy sections of S2+1 survive, and where the only significant alterations appear to have been hatching out what must at one time have been some long stretches of S3. I guess it is precisely because the motorway is there that so much of the road's original character has been preserved. There's quite an old-fashioned feel to the dualled A4 past Heathrow and on towards Maidenhead too, which would probably have also been modernised if it continued to be the principal route from London to the west.

As it is, the A4 is a gem, and I guess we have the M4 to thank for that!
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Re: M4 to A4

Post by fras »

When I was a boy, my brother and I used to go to our grandparents who lived in Putney. This was the 50s so virtually no motor traffic compared to today. The middle part of our journey involved using the "B" bus from Reading to Victoria Coach Station. ALthough the destination was the coach station, the bus was a normal stage carriage bus, a double decker with driver and conductor, but it had more comfortable seats, and a closing passenger door . It's route was the old A4 Bath Road (still called that today), via Twyford, Maidenhead, Slough, then along the Colnbrook Bypass, and then the dual-carriageway Great West Road past London Airport. The road had been built before WW2 and included separate cycle ways. The aircraft of the day could be seen. The Great West Road was met by the Great South West Road, (the A30) at a roundabout east of London Airport, then carried on to Chiswick and Hammersmith. We got off at Hammersmith to get the trolleybus to Putney. The bus took well over 2 hours as I recall, and no toilet stops either !
SteveA30
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Re: M4 to A4

Post by SteveA30 »

Even though the A4 was quiet when I first drove it, I could sense its former greatness. You've given us a glimpse of how it would have been today, had the M4 never come along.

Indeed, these diversions offer both a window to the past and an idea of how such roads would cope today. Not very well in most cases. The junctions at either end are the main bottlenecks. Sheer weight of traffic isn't always a cause of hold-ups on its own, the A38 from J27-26 flows perfectly well, as the road hasn't (yet) been messed up by the LA, although there is a new rbt on the edge of Wellington for - natch- housing. It has original D2 and S2/1, allowing good progress for M5-ers.

As the pics show, the A4 sometimes ground to a halt. 5 minutes later, it was flowing freely at about 40mph, then back to queueing again. The stretch shown was probably S3, as it had 2 visible grooves where the cats eyes and markings would have been.
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SteveA30
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Re: M4 to A4

Post by SteveA30 »

Back again for more.... I tried to resist but, I can't help it. Divs Anonymous promise to support me in my struggle. Anyway, a lovely warm Saturday in October beckoned. Some attempts to find different perspectives as well. Petrol stations were all normal on the journey, including A34 Tothill, where I stocked up on layby provisions. Hungerford though was a mini panic station area, as shown. The staff said they ran out on Wednesday.
Attachments
A4/A338
A4/A338
Dolphins Smile
Dolphins Smile
The boy looked on
The boy looked on
Last edited by SteveA30 on Sun Oct 10, 2021 20:49, edited 2 times in total.
Roads and holidays in the west, before motorways.
http://trektothewest.shutterfly.com
http://holidayroads.webs.com/
SteveA30
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Re: M4 to A4

Post by SteveA30 »

1. A338 narrow escape.
2. A not uncommon event, signs for different diversions, creating doubt in drivers minds. LA and NH not collaborating?
3. Some West Country hauliers seem to prefer the M5/M4 route over the A303/M3 route to that London. Checking for the 2 weekend M4 closures first might have been a good idea though. (Heathrow was the other)
Attachments
Tight Fit - The Lorry Sleeps Tonight
Tight Fit - The Lorry Sleeps Tonight
Showing Signs of Confusion
Showing Signs of Confusion
M5/M4 - the preferred route
M5/M4 - the preferred route
Last edited by SteveA30 on Sun Oct 10, 2021 21:26, edited 1 time in total.
Roads and holidays in the west, before motorways.
http://trektothewest.shutterfly.com
http://holidayroads.webs.com/
SteveA30
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Re: M4 to A4

Post by SteveA30 »

The map from 16.00 today, shows that the B4000 is a much better route and more direct. Many took it but, it didn't mean an escape from jams, as shown. NH still persist in their insistence on A roads only, which worked to my advantage in this case.

There is another on Oct 23/24. Must resist, I've only been there 5 times before, quite modest really, compared with other roads......
Attachments
Squeeze - Up The Junction
Squeeze - Up The Junction
4pm today, Sunday Oct 10
4pm today, Sunday Oct 10
Roads and holidays in the west, before motorways.
http://trektothewest.shutterfly.com
http://holidayroads.webs.com/
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