Motorway Database
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Factfile - Images - Timeline - Exit List
This is a troubled little motorway. It doesn't ask for much, it just shifts traffic around the west of Southampton, connecting the M27 bypass to the docks and providing a few local connections. It isn't a big job, and yet somehow the M271 gets it all wrong.
Take, for example, its number. It lies entirely west of the M3, so surely it should have a number beginning with a 3? No, apparently not.
Worse, take its interchange with the M27. It's a roundabout with peak time traffic signals, and only one lane on the southbound flyover. Not exactly a motorway standard route.
In fact, it has only one junction on its route that isn't just a flat roundabout (two of which are grade separated to give priority to another route). Its one full junction fails entirely to meet a classified road. Oh dear.
Its number, and the existence of the M275 near Portsmouth, suggests a number of other M27 spurs were planned (and also explains the numbering anomaly).
Factfile
| Start | Upton (A3057) |
| Finish | Totton (A35) |
| Passes | None |
| Length | 3 miles |
| Terminates | None |
| Spurs | None |
| Meets | M27 |
Images
Views of the M271 from on and off the road. If you have a photo to contribute, contact me.
Northbound, approaching the midway roundabout. To our left, the M27. To our right, the M27. Ahead of us, separated from the rest of the route by a roundabout, the rest of the motorway. Note also the awful road surface.
Photo by Steven Jukes
Southbound at the only junction at motorway standard - look, flyovers! Note the apalling surface here, and the warnings appearing already for queues at the terminal roundabout.
Photo by Steven Jukes
Heading towards the end, we appear to be about to hit a block of flats. That about sums up the quality of this route! Though at least from here we have three lanes.
Photo by Steven Jukes
Construction Timeline
When the various parts of the M271 were built, listed in chronological order.
| Open | Section |
|---|---|
| 1978 | Entire Motorway |
Exit List
All the junctions and destinations along the route.
| Junction | Northbound | Southbound | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Romsey A3057 |
A3057 |
NORTH |
A3057 |
N/A    |
||||||
| Rownhams Nursling A3057    |
||||||||||
1 mile, 2 lanes  |
 1 mile, 2 lanes |
|||||||||
| (M27 J3) | Salisbury (A36) Bournemouth (A31) M27  |
M27 |  |
M27 | Eastleigh London (M3 )M27 |
|||||
| Eastleigh Winchester (M3 )M27    |
Salisbury (A36) Bournemouth (A31) M27   |
|||||||||
| 1 mile, 2 lanes |
1 mile, 2 lanes |
|||||||||
| Lordshill Ind Est (A3057)  |
  |
(A3057) | Lordshill Ind Est (A3057)   |
|||||||
| 1 mile, 3 lanes |
1 mile, 3 lanes |
|||||||||
N/A |
A35 |
 SOUTH |
A35 |
Southampton &  Millbrook A35 (A33) |
||||||
| Totton Lyndhurst A35   |
