Unchanged Junctions

[SteveA30]

I always like finding a once major junction on old trunk roads that have managed to survive unscathed by LA alterations. They were generally designed to keep the main road traffic flowing by giving them priority throughout. A452/A4177 is a good one, the main flow was from A452 to A4177 and on to the A41 so, it was a bend with a rbt within. It was unaltered when I last went that way in April.

A38/A361 just north of Taunton is a lovely example, although there is a short piece of hatching to D1 s/bnd, where right turn traffic has to cross. A38 Wellington bypass was similar to A4177, except SCC have changed priority to normal rbt layout. A38 used to be freeflow both ways, no giving way. Same at Basingstoke bypass, now conventional. Also A38/A370. So. not many that are totally untouched. Any more to add to A4177?
A6/M6 at Carnforth and A591 at Kendal bypass were freeflow rbts for those numbers when built if I recall correctly.

[Owain]

I'm not as good as other Sabristi on the history because I don't have the facts to support my theories .... but sometimes I look at or drive a road and I just get a 'feeling' that it's been that way since the age of black-and-white kerbstones. So how about these?

A322-A332

A614-A6097

A34-A51

A24-A29

A3-A31

A44-A424

A68-A696

And this one, which has remained unchanged at least since my childhood

??

[Johnathan404]

I'd say A33/A34 counts. It was designed to be the split between traffic for The Midlands and London. Now London has been swapped for 'Kings Worthy only', but it still gets the mainline and a sweeping curve.

[Owain]

I think Steve would like these, too:

Bangor, NI

Armagh crazy stuff

NI crackpottery

And a couple close to my heart.

Oh yes, and this one too!

[Alderpoint]

I always like finding a once major junction on old trunk roads that have managed to survive unscathed by LA alterations. They were generally designed to keep the main road traffic flowing by giving them priority throughout. A452/A4177 is a good one, the main flow was from A452 to A4177 and on to the A41 so, it was a bend with a rbt within. It was unaltered when I last went that way in April.

Ah but it has been altered. Back in the mists of time the A4177 was a little country lane and the major road was the A452 from Balsall Common to Kenilworth - the junction was a plain 'T'.
When the country lane was upgraded to the A4177 as effectively bypass to Kenilworth (70s? 80s?) then the current junction was installed, but I agree it's not changed much if at all since then. [ I've been going through this junction at least a couple of times a month for the last 30 years - more when I used to reside in north Kenilworth.]

[SteveA30]

I knew about the A4177 original layout but, I'm talking about the current junction, which has survived unscathed so far. These junctions were designed to give the trunk road freeflow lanes while still looking like a rbt

The old A30/A303 one at Micheldever was one. A303 to A30 east was a straight line. A30 to A30(T) east had to give way then merge with the A303 via a second lane. A30(T) to A303 west had a straight line priority in to the rbt then around to the right and exit as normal. Both freeflow. The A30(T) to A30 west was also a straight line. Only the side road to Micheldever had to give way both ways. That side of the former rbt still exists. The eastbound side is gone but, can be traced on foot, even with gypsies present, which they were when I went!

[WHBM]

A38 Wellington bypass was similar to A4177, except SCC have changed priority to normal rbt layout. A38 used to be freeflow both ways, no giving way.

I wouldn't call the A38 Welly "bypass" unchanged, as it was only devised about 1970 from unclassed road rat-runs, when the M5 was already in prospect, and possibly under construction. Initially it had temporary "Light vehicles only" signing. The roundabouts came later.

Edward Du Cann, lomgstanding MP for the area, made one of those gargantuan waffly "talking out" speeches in 1969 about the A38 still going through Wellington, in the course of which he covered a number of road projects, including the M5 and the forthcoming adaptation of minor roads into a bypass.

https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/1 ... trictions)

[Alderpoint]

I knew about the A4177 original layout but, I'm talking about the current junction,

Well if you are talking about the current junction and not the original layout then I suggest the M6/A14/M1 junction which has not changed since it was rebuilt a few years ago.

[SteveA30]

Owain's examples show how beautifully designed they were. Not off the shelf standard rbts like today but, each one designed just for that location.
The A332/A322 one was freeflow from 332 to 322 s/bnd with a separate lane and merge. Now it has been kinked and is a normal give way. The other side is now signalised. They actually designed them to avoid stopping traffic wherever possible, the opposite of now.

[owen b]

The Cock of the North roundabout on the old A1 (now A167) just on the south side of Durham city hasn't been fundamentally changed since at least the 1970s. Northbound traffic on the A167 has priority over traffic circulating the roundabout.
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@54.75283 ... a=!3m1!1e3

[crb11]

I'm not as good as other Sabristi on the history because I don't have the facts to support my theories .... but sometimes I look at or drive a road and I just get a 'feeling' that it's been that way since the age of black-and-white kerbstones. So how about these?

A24-A29

That one was a T junction until at least 1986 (I remember being surprised to see such an unimpressive junction between two apparently major roads when we went that way on holiday as a kid).

[Owain]

Owain's examples show how beautifully designed they were. Not off the shelf standard rbts like today but, each one designed just for that location.

Oh look! - this is the junction with black-and-white kerbstones that I mentioned to you at the away day. I remember it from visits to my grandparents' during the 1980s. The paint is much faded, but still visible!

Back on topic:

A449-B4424

A40-B4215 (this one has been spoilt a bit by the recent redevelopment of the dual carriageway and the addition of traffic lights, but what was once quite a free-flowing design - the only Give Way being in the central reservation - is still clearly evident from the overhead view)

And there must be thousands of examples like this simple design which remain untouched all over the country.

[Owain]

And how many examples can there be of a dual carriageway ceding to the mainline of a single carriageway? [Shame about the traffic lights!]

[Bryn666]

And how many examples can there be of a dual carriageway ceding to the mainline of a single carriageway? [Shame about the traffic lights!]

It's a weird one that because the A584 was originally S3 and the A583 was S4.

The dual carriageway to Freckleton came later.

Also the A6119 meets the A677 at a similar angle with traffic lights. As does the A663 at the A62.

Must be a Lancashire thing.

[Big L]

And how many examples can there be of a dual carriageway ceding to the mainline of a single carriageway? [Shame about the traffic lights!]

Junction of the A41 and A4040 in Tyseley, Brum.

[Paul7755]

A3-A31 was a flat junction until about the early 80s? Right hand lane to a traffic light controlled junction to cross the northbound A3 then S2 up to another flat junction with the A31?

Paul

[wrinkly]

A3-A31 was a flat junction until about the early 80s? Right hand lane to a traffic light controlled junction to cross the northbound A3 then S2 up to another flat junction with the A31?

There has been a bridge at the A3/A31 junction since the 1930s, so I wouldn't describe it as a flat junction.

It might have included flat junctions as constituent parts.

[Paul7755]

A3-A31 was a flat junction until about the early 80s? Right hand lane to a traffic light controlled junction to cross the northbound A3 then S2 up to another flat junction with the A31?

There has been a bridge at the A3/A31 junction since the 1930s, so I wouldn't describe it as a flat junction.

It might have included flat junctions as constituent parts.

The original two way road that is now the eastbound to northbound slip provide all the actual junction movements, surely? But in the context of the earlier question the present junction has changed significantly since originally built.

[SteveA30]

The slip road down to the A3 n/bnd was for 2 way traffic, until about 1977ish. Bit of a nightmare turning right from the s/bnd A3. A WS2 if I recall.
The A31 into Guildford had to give way to the flow coming up from the A3.

[skiddaw05]

This roundabout on the old A11 at Thetford is everthing a Trunk road roundabout should be. And see what replaced it