A11 road
From Free net encyclopedia
The A11 is a major road in England. It runs roughly north east from London to Norwich, Norfolk, although it apparently disappears as it goes through the London Borough of Redbridge and the county of Essex, and again on the Newmarket bypass.
Contents |
City of London
Originally, the A11 started at the Bank of England in the City of London, next to Bank tube station, and went eastward along Cornhill and Leadenhall Street, past Aldgate Pump and along Aldgate. All this part has been declassified and is now a minor road. Thus the A11 now starts at Aldgate, just inside the eastern boundary of the City of London. The first stretch is Aldgate High Street, passing south of Aldgate tube station. Traffic is one way westbound.
Tower Hamlets
East of Aldgate station, the A11 enters the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and the East End of London. It becomes Whitechapel High Street (containing Aldgate East tube station). For most of its length, this stretch has one-way eastbound traffic, but traffic becomes two-way just before the eastern end of Whitechapel High Street. The A11 becomes Whitechapel Road, famous from the British version of the Monopoly board. It passes through Whitechapel, past Whitechapel tube station and the Royal London Hospital. It becomes Mile End Road, passing Stepney Green tube station and Mile End tube station. Next, it becomes Bow Road, passing Bow Road tube station and Bow Church DLR station.
There is now a flyover over the Bow Interchange roundabout, a junction with the A12. At the end of the flyover, the A11 crosses into the London Borough of Newham.
Newham
The A11 now briefly becomes a dual carriageway as it crosses the valley of the River Lea. (Originally, there was a strait or narrow ford here, which gave its name to Stratford.) This dual carriageway section ends in a one-way system marking Stratford town centre. The eastbound road, Great Eastern Road, passes Stratford station. The westbound road is called Broadway and The Grove; the latter road runs north-south. At the end of the one-way system, The Grove becomes two-way, still going north. The A11 then becomes Leytonstone Road; Maryland railway station is on the corner where the name change occurs.
Waltham Forest
The A11 crosses from the London Borough of Newham into the London Borough of Waltham Forest and becomes High Road Leytonstone. At the northern end of this stretch is the Green Man Roundabout, where it crosses the A12 again.
Redbridge
The A11 now apparently disappears. This is because, following the opening of the M11 motorway, the A11 was re-numbered to make it seem a less important road and encourage traffic to use the M11. Its former route goes through the London Borough of Redbridge. It becomes the A1199 and is called Hollybush Hill, Woodford Road and High Road Woodford Green. It crosses over the A406 road but there are no slip roads for interchange. It merges with the A104 Woodford New Road to become the A104 High Road Woodford Green. Just before leaving London for Essex, it becomes A104 Epping New Road.
Essex
Shortly after entering Essex, the A104 enters Epping Forest. After a while, it reaches the Wake Arms Roundabout and becomes the B1393. Just after leaving the forest, it crosses the M25 motorway (which is in a tunnel at that point), then goes through Epping. The B1393 ends at junction 7 of the M11, and the route of the A11 goes along the A414 through the eastern suburbs of Harlow. The road then becomes the A1184 and goes through Sawbridgeworth.
Just south of Bishop's Stortford, the A1184 turns sharp left to become part of the Bishop's Stortford bypass, but the route of the A11 becomes the B1383 and goes through the town and through Stansted Mountfitchet and Quendon. It crosses the M11 and passes Audley End. The B1383 ends at 9A (Stump Cross), the end of a spur that comes off the M11 at Junction 9, near Great Chesterford.
Cambridgeshire and Suffolk
The road enters Cambridgeshire, the road number A11 re-appears and the A11 is now a trunk road. It roughly follows the route of a Roman road for the remainder of its length.
The A11 formerly went through Newmarket; that stretch is now the A1304. The Newmarket bypass is a dual carriageway. The western end is the A11, but most of its length is the A14. The A11 re-appears north-east of Newmarket, and remains a dual carriageway until Mildenhall. The road bypasses Mildenhall before entering Norfolk in the Thetford Forest.
Norfolk
The A11 is then single carriageway to Thetford. The road continues, bypassing Thetford, Attleborough and Wymondham, although up until recently it ran through the centre of Thetford, causing heavy traffic on the route. It also passes the Snetterton Motor Racing Circuit. On entering Norwich, it becomes single carriageway again and is called Newmarket Road. It terminates at the St Stephens Street roundabout near the city centre.
Recently, various sections of the A11 between Norwich and the junction with the M11 in Cambridgeshire have been upgrated to dual carriageway in an ongoing effort by the Highways Agency to modernise the City's primary road connection with London. On 17 August 2005, it was announced that works to dual a 3.3 mile section of the Attleborough bypass will soon be underway<ref>Highways Agency: Newsroom</ref>.
Norwich is currently the largest population centre in the UK not to be connected to any other centre by an unbroken dual carriageway.
References
<references/>
External links
- Highways Agency - A11 Strategy: Cambridge to Norwich
- Roads to Ruin - Critique of planned Regional road improvements