The A14
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This page appeared on 1 April 2006 and is an April Fool joke.
The main trunk route between the Midlands and the major port of Felixstowe is a two-lane dual-carriageway blocked with lorries and plagued with bad junctions. But it was meant to be so much more, as files from the Public Record Office at Kew reveal.
Today
Today's A14 is a much-derided trunk route. Stretching for 200 miles across the country, it begins at one of the worst junctions on the whole road network - the horrific Catthorpe - and fails to get much better. East from there the road is new-build, opened in about 1992, including a new bypass for Corby and Kettering. But by the time it reaches the A1, the A14 is just hijacking and dualling existing roads. The congested section between A1 and M11 was never meant to carry east-west traffic alongside its heavy load of north-south traffic.
From there, it negotiates some single-lane sliproads to change direction and commandeers part of the A45, which it rides right the way to Felixstowe. It's just no good - solid HGV traffic carried on two narrow lanes, often upgraded very cheaply from the original single carriageway. Major and minor junctions alike are awful. Congestion is frequent. But it wasn't meant to be this way.
The original plan
It's been remarked before that it is unusual that the A14 route was only really developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It certainly seems like it should have been considered much earlier. And in true British planning style, it was, right back in 1965.
A Ministry of Transport report called 'Trunk Routes into the Seventies' was commissioned by the incoming Labour government in 1964 and examined what the options were for developing the motorway network further. It was created mainly to evaluate how the Labour government could progress from the policies of Ernest Marples as the Conservatives' transport minister, which had been heavily biased towards road construction.
However, Barbara Castle as the new transport minister was already realising that it was too late to reverse the ongoing Beeching cuts, and as a result, the government's hands were tied: they had to improve the roads to match the decline of the railways. 'Trunk Routes into the Seventies' was therefore mostly concerned with how to improve the road network in the most economical way, as a compromise between the ongoing transport reforms and the Labour government's politics.
Most of the report's suggestions are just roads we know well - completing the M6 and M4, extending the A20(M) Maidstone Bypass towards Ashford, and so on. It includes a very early appearance for the M5 south of Bristol. But most interesting of all is this section:
Strategic Route K
Route K is the eastward radial route from the Midlands, currently fulfilled by trunk route A.45. It connects population centres at Coventry, Northampton, Cambridge and Ipswich; it also carries goods traffic from key industrial and production areas in the West Midlands to the ports of Felixstowe and Harwich.
Population growth in this corridor to 1996 is estimated at 200,000, exacerbated by planned New Town development at Northampton. Goods traffic is predicted to rise with growth of international shipping at Felixstowe. It is anticipated that by 1986, trunk route A.45 will be inadequate for its purpose, and if left unimproved will be running at 175% capacity.
To alleviate this problem, Strategic Route K is divided into two sections, referred to as K1 and K2 for simplicity. K1 runs from Coventry to trunk route A.1; K2 runs from A.1 to Felixstowe.
Proposed improvements to Strategic Route K1
Between Coventry and motorway M.1, the proposals for Strategic Route A will bypass A.45 between Birmingham and M.1 with a new motorway, M.6. Further improvements to trunk route A.45 are not considered necessary on this section. East of M.1, a northern by-pass of Northampton is proposed, constructed to motorway standard. Assuming that Strategic Route K is superceded by motorway M.6 and Strategic Route A, the bypass is proposed to run from the interchange of M.1 and M.6 eastward to Rothwell, providing a southern by-pass to Kettering, then passing close to Thrapston. It then turns due south-east at Spaldwick to pass south of Grafham Water and terminates on trunk route A.1 at Hail Weston.
Proposed improvements to Strategic Route K2
Eastward from the interchange of A.45 and A.1, a northern by-pass is proposed for St Neots, and from there an on-line improvement is proposed to motorway standard. A parallel all-purpose route is proposed to provide access to destinations between trunk routes A.1 and A.604, and between these points the improved route will interchange only with county road A.14. At A.604, Strategic Route K2 encounters Strategic Route F (motorway M.11). The route will then diverge to provide a northern by-pass to Cambridge, constructed to motorway standard, terminating at trunk route A.11 near Bottisham. East from this point an on-line upgrade with by-passes of settlements is proposed, to grade-separated all-purpose standard, for the remainder of the route to Felixstowe. Further study is required to determine whether a northern or southern by-pass of Ipswich is to be constructed. At Felixstowe, the route will diverge, with a trunk route connection to the docks and county road connection to Felixstowe town.
Consideration has been given to route numbering for Strategic Route K. It was not considered appropriate to retain the number A.45 as the western section of the route is largely on a new line. The constraints of the motorway numbering system mean that M.14 is considered most appropriate for this route, to be adopted between motorway M.1 and trunk route A.11. Eastward from this point the designation A.45 may be retained.
This diagram plots the line of Strategic Route K and the suggested improvements.
The giveaway evidence
This leaves today's A14 looking pretty poor by comparison - but it does answer quite a few questions. For example, the A14 number is technically a problem because the road starts west of the A1 and A6, and should therefore have a number beginning with a 5. It's quite likely that A14 is a nod towards the number proposed for the route back in 1965. Other than this, the route's all there - with a bit of a deviation avoiding what is now the most congested section - and to a much higher standard. Further on in 'Trunk Routes into the Seventies' there's a little more information on the route, which allows us to pin down some features of the existing road that point back to that original proposal.
At Spittals interchange, the mainline of the A14 turns between west and south and is grade separated in the wrong direction. To the south, the road was already a dualled and grade-separated A604 long before the A14 showed up. The reason is that the road west from here is a botch - linking the old M14 line to the A604 to reduce the amount of roadbuilding that was necessary.
Further south, at Girton, the A14 turns again between north and east. The reason is simple - the junction was built in the late 1970s, still anticipating the M14 which should have steamed through east-west.
And at Felixstowe, the A14 does another sharp turn, heading south. The roundabout is obviously awaiting a flyover - to the east would have been the county road link to Felixstowe town centre and the trunk route (then A45) continues south. All is solved!
In conclusion - the A14 is, as had often been suspected, a botch of different routes.
The documents described here, including a copy of 'Trunk Routes into the Seventies', are available at the National Archives in Kew (formerly the Public Record Office) at reference number AF/01-04-2006.
Coming next week: how the M50 was built for a bet.
