Somerset route to be altered as part of A303 upgrade

To allow for National Highways to carry out the next stage of essential work, changes in the layout of the road around the Steart Hill Junction and Gason Lane, known as Wales embankment, are needed.

Specifically, the government-owned company needs to move traffic onto the newly built westbound carriageway to allow space to build the new eastbound carriageway.

The changes include:

• Eastbound traffic will switch onto a single lane of the new westbound carriageway at Steart Hill through to Gason Lane and then back onto the existing A303;
• Westbound traffic will switch from the existing A303 westbound carriageway at Gason Lane and run temporarily on a single lane of the new westbound carriageway, before switching to run temporarily on the eastbound carriageway of the new A303 after Steart Hill.

Weather permitting, the changes will happen under a full weekend closure of the A303 between Sparkford and Ilchester, from 9pm on Friday 19 April and 6am on Monday 22 April.

During this closure, access will remain for local residents. A signed diversion will be in place for all other traffic.

Westbound A303 traffic will be directed to join the A359 at Sparkford roundabout, travelling to Yeovil to pick up the A37 and rejoining the A303 north of Ilchester.

Eastbound A303 traffic will follow the diversion in reverse.

Siân Hopkins, National Highways' Senior Project Manager for the A303 Sparkford scheme, said: "We appreciate the A303 is a well-used road, and we are keeping disruption to an absolute minimum. 

"We understand roadworks and changes in road layout can be frustrating, but we've communicated the traffic switch well in advance to local communities.

"We're ensuring access is maintained for residents and businesses, and we'll be keeping people fully informed as we continue to progress with the scheme.

"We thank people in advance for their co-operation and patience and in the meantime, we advise drivers to plan ahead and allow a little extra time for their journeys during this work." 

To ensure the works can be carried out safely, new speed limits will be in place along the section of altered road.

These speed limits are in place for the safety of road users and workers on the scheme, and are influenced by the volume of traffic, junctions, the width of the road and its alignment.

Locations where the layout requires traffic to cross between the existing and new carriageway will have a lower speed limit, 30mph instead of 50mph, and will be clearly signed.

This is the second traffic switch for users of the road following changes to the layout in January between Yeovilton Junction and Steart Hill. Users were moved to the eastbound carriageway to allow the westbound carriageway to be built, work that has now been complete, and included the opening of the Steart Hill overbridge.

More traffic switches will take place throughout the year, as the scheme looks towards completion in Winter 2024/25.

The A303 Sparkford to Ilchester upgrade will provide a high-quality three-mile dual carriageway link on the A303 in Somerset, including new and replacement slip roads, junctions and road bridges to replace existing junctions and direct access roads.   

The new dualled section will start east of Podimore Roundabout, follow the alignment of the existing A303 to Downhead, and then move north of the existing A303 single carriageway, allowing the existing road to be kept for use as a local road in this section.  

The route will rise up West Camel Hill before crossing over the existing A303 at the junction with Steart Hill/Howell Hill and meet up with the existing road again between Vale Farm and the Ministry of Defence signal station at Eyewell/Traits Land.  

The final section of the route bypasses the existing Hazlegrove Roundabout to the north through the Registered Park and Garden associated with Hazlegrove House, before tying into the existing A303 Sparkford Bypass.  

Once completed, the route will make this section of the A303 safer for all users, while protecting the environment by minimising the impact on the surrounding landscape.  

The scheme between Sparkford and Ilchester will not only promote economic growth in this area of Somerset, but it will also tackle a long-standing bottleneck, reduce journey times to the South West and improve traffic flows in the area at peak times and during peak seasons.   

On an average day, the A303 between Sparkford and Ilchester carries 23,500 vehicles but numbers increase significantly in the summer, particularly at weekends, making journeys unreliable and unpredictable.     

National Highways is working with its delivery partner, Galliford Try, to construct the scheme. 

With construction now into its third year, you can find out more about the scheme and the construction process on National Highways' website.

Notes to Editors

National Highways is the wholly government-owned company responsible for modernising, maintaining and operating England's motorways and major A roads.

Real-time traffic information for England'smotorways and major A roads is available via the Traffic England website, local and national radio travel bulletins, electronic road signs and mobile apps. Local Twitter services are also available.

For further information please contact National Highways' press office (24hrs) on 0844 693 1448 and select the most appropriate option:

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