Most important non-trunk road?

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ajuk
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Re: Most important non-trunk road?

Post by ajuk »

The A380 comes to mind and maybe the A472 as the most important non-primary road.
Scratchwood
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Re: Most important non-trunk road?

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Chris5156 wrote: Thu Apr 22, 2021 17:30
Bryn666 wrote: Thu Apr 22, 2021 17:21I thought it was detrunked once Aston Clinton was bypassed in 2003, though, as Herts wouldn't take it on without this completed?
You're right, yes. It was on the list of roads to be detrunked as part of the 1998 New Deal for Trunk Roads, but it was one of the small number that was then delayed for several years because the local authority wouldn't accept it. In the A41's case it was the Aston Clinton Bypass that had to be built as a condition of detrunking; the other two I can recall going through similar processes were the A63 (where the Selby Bypass had to be built) and the A500 (with the Hough and Shavington Improvement).
The Aston Clinton bypass is actually in Bucks, indeed the ex A41(M) Tring bypass stops more or less exactly on the boundary between Herts and Bucks!
Rillington
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Re: Most important non-trunk road?

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A1079
MikeB55
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Re: Most important non-trunk road?

Post by MikeB55 »

ajuk wrote: Thu Jul 21, 2022 00:51 The A380 comes to mind and maybe the A472 as the most important non-primary road.
The A380 is entirely primary! I assume you meant non-trunk.
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Jonny A46
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Re: Most important non-trunk road?

Post by Jonny A46 »

If I exclude the numerous single carriageway A roads which were detrunked in the late 1990s/early 2000s despite not being obviously superseded by superior alternatives, such as the A16 and A17, the A24 and A299 strike me as two of the more significant roads that have never been trunk. There's also the A44 between Leominster and Rhayader, which doesn't immediately stand out as an especially important non-trunk road but is unusual in mid Wales where virtually every other primary route is trunk.

Historically, one interesting example is the A604 (now A120) between Colchester and Harwich. Harwich was included in the initial set of super primary destinations in the 1960s, but the A604 was not trunked and I therefore believe Harwich was at the time the only super primary destination not served by the trunk road network.
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ajuk
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Re: Most important non-trunk road?

Post by ajuk »

MikeB55 wrote: Sun Jul 24, 2022 22:25
ajuk wrote: Thu Jul 21, 2022 00:51 The A380 comes to mind and maybe the A472 as the most important non-primary road.
The A380 is entirely primary! I assume you meant non-trunk.
The A380 is non-trunk, the A472 is non-primary despite being a very important and busy road with lots of upgrades and bypasses.
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KeithW
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Re: Most important non-trunk road?

Post by KeithW »

Jonny A46 wrote: Mon Jul 25, 2022 21:22 If I exclude the numerous single carriageway A roads which were detrunked in the late 1990s/early 2000s despite not being obviously superseded by superior alternatives, such as the A16 and A17, the A24 and A299 strike me as two of the more significant roads that have never been trunk. There's also the A44 between Leominster and Rhayader, which doesn't immediately stand out as an especially important non-trunk road but is unusual in mid Wales where virtually every other primary route is trunk.

Historically, one interesting example is the A604 (now A120) between Colchester and Harwich. Harwich was included in the initial set of super primary destinations in the 1960s, but the A604 was not trunked and I therefore believe Harwich was at the time the only super primary destination not served by the trunk road network.

Worthing is not exactly a strategic destination. Harwich was until the 1950's and 1960's as a major and RN base. In WW2 the navies rapid reaction force in case of invasion was based at Harwich. Both Harwich and Felixstowe were at the time mainly supplied and connected by rail and sea. The A45, now A14 was trunk to Ipswich but not from Ipswich to Felixstowe which at the time was just minor port handling agricultural goods.

Felixstowe and Harwich in 1955
https://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/maps/ind ... 16&layer=4

Hull 1953
https://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/maps/ind ... 14&layer=4
There were very few trunk roads in the North East before LTN 1/94 published in the 1990's added Hexham, Humber Bridge, Teesside and the Tyne Tunnel

In short destinations change in importance over time and the list of trunk roads published in the 1936 act was later much shortened and in reality little changed on the ground after 1938 until road building resumed in the 1950's

See the 1936 List here,
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/19 ... ST/enacted

Some of those dropped reappeared later, such as the A19. Heathrow in 1946 was agricultural land with the little known airfield of RAF Heston which was brand new, had never been used and was declared surplus to requirements.

1946 Act
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1946/30/enacted

Many trunk roads until the 1990's received little money for maintenance and none for improvement. Take a look at the A15 in Sabre maps and little has changed between the A18 and Peterborough between the 1950's and today.

At the end of the day a Trunk Road is a road which is deemed of national importance and which the government is prepared to provide funding to keep it in good repair and upgrade if necessary. The real trunk road north/south through Lincolnshire and Yorkshire is the A1/A1(M). In the case of Teesside to Newcastle the A1(M) has been maintained but the new investment since the 1960's has been on on the A19 between Teesside and the Tyne Tunnel.
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