Kidderminster, Blakedown and Hagley Bypass

The Kidderminster, Blakedown and Hagley Bypass was a proposed bypass in Worcestershire designed to relieve parts of the A456 and A450 in the northern part of the county, as well as offering part-relief to the A449 which runs to the east of Kidderminster town centre.

It was proposed by the Highways Agency in the early 1990s to accompany the Western Orbital, which it would have met to the north of the village of Blakedown. Whilst it was promoted as part of the motorway-standard Western Orbital, it was proposed to all-purpose road standards, though it was proposed to be fully grade separated and would have been a dual carriageway with two lanes per direction of travel (D2).

A public enquiry was held in 1993, with the legal Orders for construction being published in 1996. In November 1996, it was however withdrawn from the Trunk Road construction programme, and in 2004 Wyre Forest District Council ceased to protect the line of the road.

Route

The proposed route started on the A449 at Summerfield to the south of Kidderminster, where it would have met the also unbuilt Kidderminster Southern Bypass. It would have headed northeast, crossing the A448 to the north of Stone, curving around the Kidderminster urban area until it reached a point between the A456 and A451 near Hurcott Wood. From here, the road would have run roughly parallel to the A451 to Iverly, where it would have turned to the east and ended up passing through the gap between the urban areas of Pedmore and Hagley before terminating on the A456 just to the west of Hagley Wood.