A34 road

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A34 road
Direction	North - South
Start	Salford
End	Winchester
Roads joined
Euroroute(s)	E 05

The A34 is a major road in England. It runs from the A6042 in Salford to Winchester in Hampshire. It forms a large part of the major trunk route from Southampton, via Oxford, to Birmingham and Manchester.

Heading South from Manchester, it runs through Cheadle, Wilmslow, Newcastle-under-Lyme, the southern suburbs of Stoke-on-Trent, before heading south to Stone, Stafford, Cannock, Walsall and Birmingham before "disappearing" at junction 4 of the M42 motorway just south of Solihull.

The road "reappears" at Junction 9 of the M40 motorway ten miles north of Oxford, and continues south as the Oxford Western Bypass, crossing the River Thames on the A34 Road Bridge. It then bypasses Abingdon, Didcot and Newbury before finally finishing just east of Winchester, at junction 9 of the M3 motorway. This part of the A34 forms the E05 European route.

Originally, the A34 ran continuously from Manchester to Winchester. The "missing" section mentioned above was downgraded to the A3400.

Together with parts of the M3 and the M40, the A34 forms an important route carrying freight from Southampton to the Midlands. Because of the volume of traffic, bypasses were built along this route – at Newbury on the A34, and at Twyford Down near Winchester on the M3 – but these were controversial for environmental reasons. (See the Newbury bypass and Twyford Down articles for some description of protests against roadbuilding.)

In 2004 works were carried out, at a cost of £38 million, to allow the road to continue without being interrupted by a roundabout at junction 13 of the M4 motorway, which had caused a 'bottleneck'.

Contents 1 Future plans 2 Former route 3 History of the road number 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Future plans

A bypass of Alderley Edge is planned. A final decision on construction by the Department for Transport is expected by January 2008.^[1]

[edit] Former route

Sourced from the 1953 fourth edition "AA Road Book of England and Wales" - note only one by-pass

[edit] History of the road number

The original (1923) route of the A34 was Winchester to Oxford, much shorter than it is today. It was extended to Manchester in 1935, replacing part of the A42 (Oxford to Birmingham), A455 (Birmingham to Stafford), part of the A449 (Stafford to Newcastle under Lyme) and A526 (Newcastle to Manchester).

[edit] References

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2007)

[edit] External links

• The Highways Agency Management Strategy for Bicester to Winchester.
• The Highways Agency A34-M4 junction improvements.
• A34 Stratford Road red route, Birmingham

v • d • e A roads in Zone 3 of the Great Britain road numbering scheme A3 • A30 • A31 • A32 • A33 • A34 • A35 • A36 • A37 • A38 • A39 A301 • A303 • A307 • A308 • A316 • A329 • A337 • A338 • A340 • A342 • A344 • A345 • A346 • A350 • A354 • A361 • A363 • A368 • A369 • A370 • A371 • A390 A3036 • A3054 • A3055 • A3090 • A3203 • A3204 • A3220 • A3400 List of A roads in Zone 3