A30/Okehampton - Launceston
| A30 | ||||||||||
| Location Map ( geo) | ||||||||||
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| From: | Okehampton (SX548919) | |||||||||
| To: | Launceston (SX322837) | |||||||||
| Distance: | 15.9 miles (25.6 km) | |||||||||
| Meets: | A388 | |||||||||
| Old route now: | A388 | |||||||||
| Highway Authorities | ||||||||||
National Highways | ||||||||||
| Counties | ||||||||||
Cornwall • Devon | ||||||||||
| Route outline (key) | ||||||||||
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Okehampton - Launceston
The next road we meet after Okehampton is the A386, which is joined to the A30 by yet another grade separated junction and this allows traffic from the A30 to go towards Bideford to Plymouth and anywhere in between. This also takes over as making the rough boundary of Dartmoor to the south as we now leave the wonderful views of the moor to head towards Launceston. The old road also leaves here towards Bridestow and Lifton. The first section of this is used to allow A386 traffic to join the west bound A30.
The main road now has around 8 miles completely uninterrupted by other roads as the A30 manages to avoid anywhere of any interest. There are slip roads in places for emergency vehicles, but that is all. Eventually, we do reach somewhere of interest (if only for the strange place), as there is a small grade separated junction at Stowford Cross with a local road that lies between the old road east of Tinhay, and towards the south of the small village of Broadwoodwidger.
We now head towards our last junction at Liftondown before the River Tamar (and therefore the Cornish border) which is where we meet the old road once more and the non primary A388. The A388 has now got two spurs to meet either end of the Launceston bypass, both of which are the old A30 through the town. Care should be taken when exiting on the westbound slip road as the turn is quite tight, but it is not as bad as the eastbound entry slip road, which is not only part of a T-Junction with the old road, but has quite a short length to get onto the A30. The old road through Lifton also meets us here, and it forms a contiguous link with the A388.
The road now descends into the Tamar Valley and the Cornish border is signed by the bridge across the river and a small sign.
The next junction is once again with the A388. It now has primary status south towards Callington and then Saltash where it meets the A38 at the Carkeel Roundabout. North, the road heads toward Launceston town centre and onto the A386 south of Bideford. Sadly though, we are unable to join the junction here because there are only west facing slip roads, meaning we can only head towards Pennygillam Junction.
This marks our final junction with the A388, using the line of the old A30 to the South west of Launceston. Plymouth and Bideford traffic on the Westbound A30 is signed off here, as well as traffic for Tavistock along the former A384 (now B3362). The A30 now heads off towards Bodmin as the former carriageway hides behind the hedge on the eastbound side.
History
As mentioned earlier, the A30 used to leave Okehampton and head toward Lifton before crossing the new road at Liftondown Junction east of Launceston, and then along the A388 into Launceston, and out the other side.
Launceston was first bypassed by taking the former route of the B3254 on the outskirts of the town, and then around the eastern side by using the A388 up to it's junction with the A30 into the town centre. The old road on the west side was numbered A3048 and met the A388 in part of the towns inner road network.
