A30 Road - History

History

The original route of the A30 went from Basingstoke to Salisbury via Andover, but was rerouted to Stockbridge on 1 April 1933. It originally ended in Penzance, being extended to Land's End in 1925.

The 2.2 mile (3.5 km) long Honiton (£984,000) dual-carriageway bypass opened in early December 1966. Between Honiton and Exeter, the A30 is dualled and at Exeter it merges briefly with the M5 motorway.

The A30 formerly ran through Exeter via Honiton Road to Heavitree Bridge, Fore Street Heavitree to Livery Dole, Heavitree Road to Paris Street. At the junction with High Street the A30 branched left and south-west and merged with the former A38 to Fore Street, New Bridge Street and Exe Bridge. At the west side of the bridge, the A38 branched left and south via Alphington Street, the A30 ran through Cowick Street, Dunsford Road and Pocombe Hill. At Pocombe Bridge, the A30 branched right and north to Tedburn St Mary.

The Okehampton bypass which opened in the 1980s skirts the northern edge of Dartmoor in Devon.

The Hayle bypass was built in the mid 1980s.

The section between Honiton and Exeter in East Devon was dualled in 1999 as a dual carriageway giving quicker access to Exeter International Airport. This road was built under the 'Design Build Finance Operate" scheme by the private consortium 'Connect A30', who funded its construction, and who receive a 'shadow toll' from the government for each vehicle that travels along this section of the road. Archaeological investigations during the work found a Roman cavalry garrison and later settlement at Pomeroy Wood.

There were many protests by environmentalists against the damage caused by the building of this road, and the particular nature of the DBFO scheme, with a long-lasting occupation of sites on the planned route, focused around the village of Fairmile. Swampy became well known for his part in this protest.

During 2006 one of the main bottlenecks on the road was removed when the Merrymeet roundabout between Okehampton and Exeter near Whiddon Down was replaced with a grade-separated junction and dual carriageway.

Since the Bodmin to Indian Queens project was completed in June 2007 the A30 is now virtually entirely dualled between Exeter and the A30/A39 junction at Carland Cross near Truro, apart from a short section across Bodmin Moor, near the village of Temple.

In late 2007 a new dual carriageway now runs around Goss Moor with the existing road converted to a cycle lane and now avoids the former bottleneck of the iron bridge that caused problems for HGV lorries which often became stuck under the bridge. See below for more details.