A41 road
From Free net encyclopedia
The A41 is a major trunk road in England, United Kingdom that links London to Birkenhead. It passes through or near various towns and villages including Watford, Hemel Hempstead, Aylesbury, Warwick, Solihull, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Whitchurch and Chester.
It follows part of the line of the old Roman road, Akeman Street.
With the opening of the M40 right through to its link up with the M42 near Birmingham in the early 1990s, much of the route has been downgraded, and renumbered accordingly. The section between Bicester and the M42 near Solihull no longer possesses this number as a result, being known as the B4100, and A4260 south of Banbury. Much of the route is an adequate alternative to the M40, except sections in Oxfordshire at Adderbury (where the road has a sharp turn at traffic lights) and in Northamptonshire at Aynho, where the road narrows.
The southern section begins near Marble Arch in London, at the junction with Oxford Street (A40), near Selfridges. The north-bound traffic uses Gloucester Place, and the south-bound uses Baker Street. This is the route National Express coaches use for entering and exiting London for the north (M1). The road crosses Marylebone Road close to Madame Tussauds, Baker St tube station, and Marylebone railway station. Close to Regents Park, the two directions begin as one road. The road passes near Lords Cricket Ground and Abbey Road Studios (Abbey Road runs parallel to the A41). It passes through Swiss Cottage, before becoming dual-carriageway on Hendon Way. It intersects with the North Circular Road near Brent Cross shopping centre. The road passes through Hendon and begins to run parallel with the M1. From the junction with the A5150 (close to the Metropolitan Police's police college and the RAF Museum), it runs directly next to the M1. It multiplexes with the A1 at Five Ways Corner, which is also junction 2 of the M1, with the section known as Watford Way. It passes through Mill Hill, and separates with the A1 at a roundabout at Apex Corner. It heads west, crossing the M1, the runs parallel to the A5 near Edgware. Near Elstree, it meets the M1 at junction 4, then meets the A5 at a roundabout, where the A5 becomes the A5183, near an Esso petrol station. It runs next to the M1 and enters Hertfordshire. This section is known as Elton Way.
Running parallel to the M1, it intersects at junction 5, known as the Berrygrove Interchange, the original endpoint of the M1 pre-1967. The road passes straight through Watford, meeting the A412 at a roundabout with a Shell and BP petrol station. The £4.5m junction with the A405 opened in April 1978. It meets the M25 at the Hunton Bridge Interchange, also junction 19a.
The Tring bypass was built in 1973 as a motorway, the first section of the Watford-Tring Motorway A41(M), although this section has been downgraded since July 6th 1987. The A41(M) was originally designed to run from Tring via what is now M25 junction 19a to M1 junction 5.
The section to Tring was finally built in the early 1990s, although to a lower standard and only as far as M25 junction 20. There were two sections - the seven-mile £23.9m Berkhamstead bypass, opened September 1993 and five-mile £32.7m Kings Langley bypass, opened August 1993. The road traverses the Chiltern Hills.
On October 3rd 2003, this section was extended to the three-mile £25m Aston Clinton Bypass, which was originally intended to be built at the same time as the two sections further south. The road goes straight through Aylesbury, which is a bottleneck where it meets the A413 and heads to Bicester, where it meets a low bridge of 14 feet,
The £5.7m two-mile first stage of the Bicester bypass opened in November 1990, with the two-mile £3.9m second stage (part of the A421 section to Wendlebury) opened in May 1993, and has many roundabouts. Since 1993, the road now heads south-west where it officially becomes part of the M40 at junction 9, meeting with the A34 (which also multiplexes with the M40 to Birmingham - to draw traffic off the previous routes). The former route went through Warwick. From here to the M42, it is now the A4177 then the A4141, which are both excellent wide roads. At junction 5 of the M42, the A41 follows its old course.
Further north, the road bypasses Solihull, goes through the city centres of Birmingham and Wolverhampton, and passes close to the RAF Museum at Cosford and one of the sites of the V Festival at Weston Park near to M54 junction 3. In Shropshire, the five mile £6m Newport bypass opened in early 1985. Newport is home of the Harper Adams agricultural college, at Edgmond. The £1.5m Hinstock Bypass opened in late 1983. The road meets the A53 at a roundabout with a Total garage at Ternhill. Near by is RAF Ternhill, a former wartime fighter base and a HM Young Offender Institution. Close by at Market Drayton next to the A53, is Müller Dairy, maker of popular yoghurts. The three-mile £13.7m Whitchurch Bypass opened in July 1992, where the road meets the A49.
The final stretch of the road leaves Shropshire and heads north through Cheshire passing various castles such as Beeston and Peckforton. Originally heading through Chester where the ancient Roman road ended, the road now bypasses the city. Running through the suburbs of Ellesmere Port (where the road was downgraded for safety reasons in the early 1990s) it heads to the junction of the M53 and Merseyside border. The road finally ends in Birkenhead just near the mouth of the Queensway Tunnel which passes under the River Mersey and enters Liverpool to meet the start of the A59. The end of the road offers spectacular views over the Mersey to Liverpool at Woodside Ferry Terminal, the home of Ferry 'cross the Mersey.