A3 road

The A3, known as the Portsmouth Road for much of its length, is a trunk road in Southern England, connecting London to Portsmouth.

The A3 near Liphook

The A3(M) at the Portsdown Hill Road Bridge nearing Junction 5 with the A27.

Northbound near the Wisley Interchange with the M25.

History

The historic Portsmouth Road once had great strategic significance as the major link between the capital city and one of its major sea ports. Many of the towns and villages that it passed through gained income and prestige as a result — such as Kingston upon Thames, Esher, Guildford, Godalming, Haslemere and Petersfield. The modern A3 follows the general route of the Portsmouth Road, but bypasses many of the towns and villages along the way, leaving the various stretches of the old Portsmouth Road for local traffic — for instance, the A307 through Esher, also known as the Portsmouth Road. For some of its length, the road follows a similar line to the Portsmouth Direct Line railway, although one of the major exceptions is that the A3 does not go through or closely bypass Havant.

However, a programme of road improvements starting in the 1920s transformed the road so that is now predominantly a two or three lane dual carriageway, bypassing the town centres, with a section of motorway, the A3(M), just before the road reaches the A27 at Havant. The construction of the Kingston and Guildford bypasses in the 1920s and 1930s made use of temporary narrow gauge railways to move the construction materials. The stretch of road between Guildford and Tolworth is three lanes with a good hard shoulder, and thus almost motorway standard.

The road was once the haunt of highwaymen. For example, the legendary Jerry Abershawe terrorised the area around Kingston and led a gang based at the Bald Faced Stag Inn on the Portsmouth Road. Another particularly dangerous location was in the vicinity of the Devil's Punch Bowl, Hindhead, about 8 miles (13 km) south-west of Guildford.

Future improvements

Main article: Hindhead Tunnel

Today Hindhead is an area better known for hold-ups of a very different kind: traffic jams. This is because it remains one of the very few stretches of single carriageway on the A3, and is heavily used by commuters. It is estimated that on average this stretch of road carries 28,400 vehicles per day, resulting in long queues building up here, particularly during the morning peak hours. A 1.2 mile (1.8 km) twin bore tunnel bypassing the Devil's Punch Bowl (a Site of Special Scientific Interest) is being built. The tunnel was started from both the north and south approaches, with the linking of the two taking place in February 2009

, with advanced works beginning in 2007 and the main works to start in 2008. Once complete (target date 2011) the £371 million Hindhead Tunnel will be the longest non-estuarial road tunnel in the UK, and will convert the last remaining single carriageway section of the A3, outside of London and Portsmouth, to dual carriageway.The project is progressing well, and the tunnel bores have already been completed.

London

The A3 starts at King William Street in the City of London, crosses London Bridge, and goes south-west along Borough High Street and Newington Causeway to the Elephant and Castle roundabout. It continues along Newington Butts, Kennington Park Road, Clapham Road and Clapham High Street. The road then passes the north side of Clapham Common and carries on through Wandsworth to Putney Heath and then between Richmond Park and Wimbledon Common. It bypasses Kingston upon Thames in SW London, where it is known as the Kingston By-pass.

The Kingston By-pass had been proposed in 1912 but with the advent of World War I plans were shelved. By the early 1920s, traffic in Kingston town centre had increased by over 160% in 10 years and the decision was taken to revive the plans. Work finally started in 1924 on what was to become one of the first arterial roads in Britain. It was opened by the Prime Minister, the Rt Hon Stanley Baldwin MP, on 28 October 1927. It ran for 8.5 miles or 14 km from the Robin Hood Gate of Richmond Park to the outskirts of Esher. The opening ceremony concluded with refreshments for 800 guests in marquees near what is now the Merton fly-over. The Merton flyover takes the Merton Spur some three miles, finishing close to Wimbledon Chase railway station.

The construction of the Kingston By-pass immediately attracted developers wishing to build houses where access was already provided. The 1935 Ribbon Development Act came too late to prevent this building, which is especially notable where the A3 winds through Tolworth and New Malden.

Today there is a traffic black spot during peak hours going northbound before the Hook underpass. The road reduces from three lanes to two in the underpass. The speed limit at this point reduces from 70 mph to 50 mph. The traffic from the A309 also joins just before the underpass. This section is often busy from about 7:50AM to 8:30AM and from 5:15PM to 5:50PM.

Surrey and Hampshire

The road then intersects with the M25 and by-passes Guildford and Godalming. It reduces to a single carriageway at Hindhead where it climbs to about 260 metres or 870 feet over a ridge. It continues past Liphook and Petersfield and climbs over the South Downs and down towards Horndean.

Portsmouth

From just north of Horndean southwards the A3 separates from the A3(M) (below) and continues as London Road as far as Hilsea, south of which it is Northern Parade (London Road continues as the A2047). It runs along the west side of Portsea Island, roughly parallel with the M275, into the centre of the town where, after passing the Catholic cathedral, it meets with the A3020. It then continues through Old Portsmouth passing the Anglican cathedral and the old 15th century harbour where it comes to an end.

A3(M)

The junction between the A3(M) and the A27.

This section of the road was opened in 1979 and acts as a bypass of the A3 road in this part of Hampshire.

Junctions

A3(M) Motorway
Northbound exits	Junction	Southbound exits
Road continues as A3 towards Petersfield	J1	Horndean A3
No exit		Start of motorway
Horndean, Lovedean B2149	J2	Havant, Lovedean B2149
Waterlooville, Denmead B2150	J3	Waterlooville, Havant B2150
Widley, Havant	J4	No exit
Drayton, Cosham A2030 Bedhampton B2177	J5	Hastings, Brighton, Chichester A27 Drayton, Cosham A2030 Bedhampton B2177
Start of motorway	Terminus	Portsmouth A27 (M27, M275)

Cycle paths

There are several shared pedestrian and cycle paths on the A3, although many are infrequently used. One cycle path links the village of Liss with the town of Petersfield on the Portsmouth-bound side of the A3 Petersfield bypass. Another links the village of Greatham with West Liss. The path is on the London-bound side, linking to a bridge over the A3 to West Liss. This means cyclists and pedestrians are not required to cross the dual carriageway on foot at the Ham Barn roundabout. There is another path on the Portsmouth-bound A3 between Longmoor Rd (near Greatham) and Liphook via Griggs Green.

There is also a cycle path between Greatham and Liphook, and nearer Portsmouth there is a cycle path between Clanfield and the Queen Elizabeth Country Park, a large forest near Petersfield next to the A3. There is, however, no cycle path between Petersfield and the Queen Elizabeth Country Park.

Between Thursley and Milford (near Guildford), cycle crossings of the sliproads have been constructed on both sides of the carriageway for the few cyclists travelling on this dual carriageway.

See also

• Great Britain road numbering scheme
• List of motorways in the United Kingdom
• British industrial narrow gauge railways

External links

• CBRD Motorway Database - A3 and A3(M)
• TAB-MSAs: Photos: A3(M)
• A3 Hindhead Improvement – Highways Agency page
• Pathetic Motorways - A3(M)
• Society for All British Road Enthusiasts entry for the A3
• A3 Hindhead Tunnel - Mott MacDonald Project Page