Debbie And Tony's Photographs And Memories The Life and Times of Debbe & Tony from Southampton, England
The Life and Times of Debbe & Tony from Southampton, England

Major Roadworks on the M27 to cause major traffic chaos in Southampton

Image used under a Collective Commons License from: https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3734560A new set of major roadworks on the M27 motorway in Southampton is set to cause lots of traffic chaos for the next two months.

The roadworks are set to start in September 2018, and are aimed at improving the flow of traffic between junctions 3 and 8 around Southampton, affecting anyone who needs to use the motorway to get from anywhere east of the city to the west.

Just one set of roadworks would be enough to cause chaos, but there are plans to not only improve the traffic flow between junctions 5 and 8, Southampton Airport to Bursledon, but also to demolish and build a new bridge at Romsey, which will mean closing the motorway in both directions between junctions 3 and 5, Rownhams to Southampton Airport.

For those who are not familiar with this part of the country, the city of Southampton is situated on the south coast, and the M27 motorway forms a big loop around the north of the city as you drive from east to west. The traffic inside this loop is usually heavy at best, so whenever there is a problem on the motorway, drivers seek to avoid the problems by driving through the inside of the loop, causing traffic to grind to a halt all over the Southampton area.

To facilitate the bridge rebuilding at Romsey, the highways department are planning to close the M27 motorway in both directions between junctions 3 to 5, which will force motorists to take a 58 mile detour to get from the east to the west of the city. That will mean instead of a ten minute journey time, it will take up to two hours because of the detour and the additional traffic.

As if this wasn’t bad enough, the highways department are also looking to widen Bitterne Road West (A3024), to help ease the flow of traffic between the city and junction 8 at Bursledon. That means an already busy road, which will see double or triple the volume of traffic due to the roadworks on the motorway, will itself be the centre of roadworks.

Living in Bitterne and having to commute to Chandlers Ford, which is between junctions 3 and 5, I can foresee nothing but absolute chaos for up to two months, with my normal 8 mile journey home, which takes between 30-45 minutes, most likely taking 1 -2 hours every day.

I for one am not looking forward to this at all. Anyone else have any feelings about this?


Hear are some more articles about the upcoming roadworks which have more information:

M27 Southampton junctions

https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/16596576.lorry-drivers-face-staggering-58-mile-diversion-when-m27-closes-next-month/

 


Image used under a Collective Commons License from: https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3734560

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