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 Newbury bypass, part of the A34 nearDonnington | ||||
| Route information | ||||
Part of E05 | ||||
| Length | 156.21 mi (251.40 km) | |||
| History | BetweenOxford andBirmingham is theA44 andA3400 | |||
| Major junctions | ||||
| South end |  M3 atWinchester (51°04′08″N1°17′28″W / 51.069°N 1.291°W /51.069; -1.291) | |||
| Major intersections | ||||
| North end |  A6 atSalford(53°28′59″N2°15′29″W / 53.483°N 2.258°W /53.483; -2.258) | |||
| Location | ||||
| Country | United Kingdom | |||
| Primary destinations | Newbury Oxford Solihull Birmingham Walsall Cannock Stafford Stoke-on-Trent Newcastle-under-Lyme Congleton Wilmslow East Didsbury Burnage Manchester | |||
| Road network | ||||
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TheA34 is a major road inEngland. It runs from theA33 andM3 atWinchester inHampshire, to theA6 and A6042 inSalford, close to Manchester City Centre.[citation needed] It forms a large part of the major trunk route fromSouthampton, viaOxford, toBirmingham,The Potteries andManchester. For most of its length (together with the A5011 and parts of theA50, andA49), it forms part of the formerWinchester–Preston Trunk Road.[1][2] Improvements to the section of road forming theNewbury Bypass aroundNewbury were the scene of significantdirect actionenvironmental protests in the 1990s.[3] It is 151 miles (243 km) long.
The road is in two sections. The northern section runs south through Manchester andCheadle, and bypassesHandforth,Wilmslow andAlderley Edge, before passing throughCongleton,Newcastle-under-Lyme, and the southern suburbs ofStoke-on-Trent. It then continues south viaStone,Stafford,Cannock andWalsall, passes through the middle ofBirmingham (where it briefly merges with theA41), before meeting theM42 motorway at junction 4 south ofSolihull.
The northern section of the road in effect combines with the motorway network and then resumes with the southern section.
The southern section begins 45 miles (72 km)SSE of the northern section, at junction 9 of theM40 motorway. It continues south as the western part of theOxford Ring Road, crossing theRiver Thames on theA34 Road Bridge. It then bypassesAbingdon,Didcot, and Newbury before finishing at junction 9 of theM3 motorway. This part of the A34 forms theE05 European route. It is a dual carriageway throughout.
Together with parts of the M3 and the M40, the A34 forms an important route carrying freight fromSouthampton to theMidlands. Because of the volume of traffic, bypasses were built along this route – at Newbury on the A34, and atTwyford Down near Winchester on the M3 – but these were controversial for environmental reasons. Notably instead of cutting a short road tunnel through Twyford Down, the escarpment was carved out for the road traffic of the motorway, though the route of the old A33 closed as a result.
In 2004, the junction with theM4 motorway was re-engineered from aroundabout to free-flowinggrade separated junction.[4]
The original (1922) route of the A34 was Winchester to Oxford, much shorter than it is today.[citation needed] It was extended to Manchester on 1 April 1935,[5] replacing part of theA42 (Oxford to Birmingham throughShipston-on-Stour,Stratford-upon-Avon andHenley-in-Arden), A455 (Birmingham to Stafford), part of theA449 (Stafford to Newcastle-under-Lyme) and A526 (Newcastle to Manchester).
By 1953 the route was as follows:[6]
When theOxford Ring Road was completed to the west of Oxford in 1962, the old route through the city was renumbered theA4144. On completion of the Abingdon Bypass in the 1970s, the old route from the Oxford Ring Road through Abingdon and Steventon toChilton was partly declassified (for 5 miles (8.0 km)) and the rest renumbered A4183, B4017,A4130 and A4185.
In 1987, the A34 between Walsall and Bloxwich swapped routes with the parallel B4210.
In 1991, shortly after the completion of the M40 motorway, the road between Oxford and Solihull was renumbered. BetweenChipping Norton and Solihull the road lost its primary route status and was renumberedA3400, and south of Chipping Norton the route became part of an extendedA44. The A34 was diverted north from the Oxford Ring Road to the M40 along parts of the former routes of theA43 (which had originally followed the route of the present B430) andA421. Much of the long-distance traffic formerly carried by the present A3400 now uses the M40 to Birmingham, and theM42 andM6 to by-pass the city.
When the Newbury Bypass was opened in 1998, the old route through Newbury became part of theA339 and the B4640.
The long planned and often postponed Alderley Edgebypass was completed in November 2010, ahead of schedule and within the £52 million budget.[7] The official opening ceremony was conducted by theChancellor of the Exchequer, the Rt HonGeorge Osborne MP,[8] on 19 November 2010.
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