The M27 is a motorway in Hampshire, England. It is long and runs between Cadnam and Portsmouth. It was opened in stages between 1975 and 1983, providing the largest two urban areas in Hampshire ( Southampton and Portsmouth) with a direct motorway link. It is unfinished, as an extension into the county of West Sussex was planned but never constructed. A number of smaller motorways were proposed, connecting the city centres of Southampton and Portsmouth to the motorway; of these only the

M271 M271 may refer to: *M271 motorway, a short motorway in Hampshire, England *Mercedes-Benz M271 engine The Mercedes-Benz M271 engine is a straight-4 automobile piston engine family used in the 2000s (decade). All M271 engines are built in Untertür ...

and M275 were built. Three sections of the M27 have since been widened to four lanes each way, the first between Junctions 7 and 8, the second between Junctions 3 and 4, and the third begins at the slip road where Junction 11 joins until mid-way to junction 12.

Route

Running approximately parallel both to the coast of the Solent and to the A27, the M27 starts as an eastwards continuation of the A31 from

Bournemouth Bournemouth () is a coastal resort town in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council area of Dorset, England. At the 2011 census, the town had a population of 183,491, making it the largest town in Dorset. It is situated on the Southern ...

and

Poole Poole () is a large coastal town and seaport in Dorset, on the south coast of England. The town is east of Dorchester and adjoins Bournemouth to the east. Since 1 April 2019, the local authority is Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Counc ...

, at Cadnam in the New Forest. The motorway meets the A36 from Salisbury, crosses the

Wessex Main Line The Wessex Main Line is the railway line from Bristol Temple Meads to Southampton Central. Diverging from this route is the Heart of Wessex Line from Westbury to Weymouth. The Wessex Main Line intersects the Reading to Taunton Line at and th ...

railway, and then meets the

to central Southampton. After the M271, the road becomes a dual four lane motorway and passes Rownhams services, it then meets the M3, (two lanes going off, two lanes continuing to the other side of the junction) reverting to a dual three lane motorway as it passes to the north of Southampton, passes Southampton Airport, meeting Junction 7 and becoming dual four lanes again, then becoming dual three lanes after Junction 8, it then runs alongside the West Coastway Line as it heads south-east towards

Fareham Fareham ( ) is a market town at the north-west tip of Portsmouth Harbour, between the cities of Portsmouth and Southampton in south east Hampshire, England. It gives its name to the Borough of Fareham. It was historically an important manufact ...

. It then runs alongside the northern outskirts of Fareham, briefly with a fourth climbing lane in either direction, before its junction with the M275 to Portsmouth. Very shortly after this point the motorway ends, becoming the A27, a four lane dual carriageway almost to motorway standards until the junction with the A3 (M) Motorway. The official reason for this section of road not being a continuation of the motorway is the hard shoulders being too narrow. Although the M275 which the M27 junctions with, has no official hard shoulders throughout its entire length.

History

Opening dates

The M27 was opened in stages (in common with many UK motorways) between 1975 and 1983. *Junction 1 to 2 opened 20 August 1975 *Junction 2 to 4 opened in December 1975 *Junction 4 to 7 opened in 1983 *Junction 7 to 8 opened in February 1978 *Junction 8 to 12 opened in March 1976 The South Stoneham Crematorium, which was located north of

South Stoneham Cemetery The South Stoneham municipal cemetery, situated off Mansbridge Road, Southampton (at ), was opened in early 1905, with the first burial taking place on 4 February, and was extended in 1927. The South Stoneham Crematorium was located north of th ...

, was demolished during 1973 to make way for the construction of the M27 motorway. The South Stoneham garden of remembrance is now located at the north end of the cemetery, adjacent to the motorway.

Unfulfilled plans

It has been said that the M27 was intended as a motorway connecting south coast towns from

Penzance Penzance ( ; kw, Pennsans) is a town, civil parish and port in the Penwith district of Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is the most westerly major town in Cornwall and is about west-southwest of Plymouth and west-southwest of London. Situated ...

Ramsgate Ramsgate is a seaside resort, seaside town in the district of Thanet District, Thanet in east Kent, England. It was one of the great English seaside towns of the 19th century. In 2001 it had a population of about 40,000. In 2011, according to t ...

. However the only proposal of a route similar to that was by the Institution of Highway Engineers in 1936. Road developments in the New Forest are also restricted due to its

national park A national park is a nature park, natural park in use for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes, created and protected by national governments. Often it is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state dec ...

status. The M27 was meant to be extended to Chichester; a sign of this is the width of the A27 road between Junction 12 and the junction with the

A3(M) The A3, known as the Portsmouth Road or London Road in sections, is a major road connecting the City of London and Portsmouth passing close to Kingston upon Thames, Guildford, Haslemere and Petersfield. For much of its length, it is classified ...

, which has 3-or-4 lanes, a hard shoulder and grade-separated junctions. It is not part of the M27 as its hard shoulders are not quite wide enough to comply with motorway regulations. The M272 was meant to go from Junction 5 through Portswood to the centre of Southampton. The M272 was instead built (in much-reduced form) as the A335 Thomas Lewis Way. Junction 6 was never built – there were plans for a motorway spur (probably to be numbered M273) connecting the M27 to the centre of the

Townhill Park Townhill Park is a suburb of Southampton, England, bordering Swaythling, Bitterne Park and West End. It is built on land which once belonged to the house which carries the same name. History The Manor of Townhill was granted to Sir ...

area of Southampton. A planned service area just east of Junction 9 was never constructed. The long westbound exit slip road at Junction 9 was designed to allow an entry to and exit from the service area.

2015 incident

In November 2015, an elderly woman, Marion Munns, died after falling from the A3057 bridge that crosses over the M27, into westbound traffic, just before Junction 3. She had not taken her anti-psychotic medication, and escaped from her Southampton home through an upstairs window before climbing off the garage roof and running away.

Smart Motorway Conversion

In March 2018, work began to convert the section between Junction 11 and Junction 4 to a Smart motorway. The scheme will turn the hard shoulder into a permanent 4th running lane, adding refuge areas along the route and installing new CCTV and speed cameras with mandatory variable speed limit signs. In early January 2019, official work began when average speed cameras were switched on between J5 and J4. Average speed cameras further along on the scheme will be turned on as work continues along the route. The work has suffered repeated delays, originally due to be complete in Spring 2021. The commissioning phase began in mid February 2022, during which time the smart motorway technology will be tested, including stopped vehicle detection radars. This is with a fully open carriageway and a 60mph speed limit controlled by electronic signs on new gantries and CCTV and speed cameras. The 60mph limit was lifted on 29th June 2022 when the upgraded section was fully opened and returned to the national speed limit.

Junctions

Data from driver location signs are used to provide distance and carriageway identifier information. Where a junction spans several hundred metres (yards) and start and end points are available, both are cited. {, style="margin-left:1em; margin-bottom:1em; color:black; font-size:95%;" class="wikitable" , - style="background:#0080d0; text-align:center; color:white; font-size:120%;" , colspan="6" , M27 motorway junctions , - !scope=col, miles !scope=col, km !scope=col abbr="Westbound", Westbound exits (B carriageway) !scope=col, Junction !scope=col abbr="Eastbound", Eastbound exits (A carriageway) !scope=col, Coordinates , - align="center" , rowspan="2", 0.0
1.2 , rowspan="2", 0.0
2.0 , ''Road continues as A31 to The WEST, Weymouth,

and Ringwood , rowspan="2", ''Terminus''
J1 , Cadnam A336,

Brook A brook is a small river or natural stream of fresh water. It may also refer to: Computing *Brook, a programming language for GPU programming based on C *Brook+, an explicit data-parallel C compiler * BrookGPU, a framework for GPGPU programm ...

, Bramshaw B3079, Lyndhurst A337
, rowspan="2", , - align="center" ,

The New Forest The New Forest is one of the largest remaining tracts of unenclosed pasture land, heathland and forest in Southern England, covering southwest Hampshire and southeast Wiltshire. It was proclaimed a royal forest by William the Conqueror, featu ...

, Cadnam, Lyndhurst A337
, ''Start of motorway'' , - align="center" , 4.2
4.6 , 6.8
7.4 , Salisbury A36, Fawley A326 , J2 , Salisbury,

Romsey Romsey ( ) is a historic market town in the county of Hampshire, England. Romsey was home to the 17th-century philosopher and economist William Petty and the 19th-century British prime minister, Lord Palmerston, whose statue has stood in the t ...

A36, Fawley A326, Paultons Park , , - align="center" , 6.6
6.8 , 10.6
11.0 , Southampton, The Docks M271(S),

M271(N) , J3 , Southampton, The Docks

, , - align="center" , , , '' Rownhams Services ( Roadchef)'' , ''Services'' , ''Rownhams Services ( Roadchef)'' , , - align="center" , 9.4
9.8 , 15.2
15.7 , The MIDLANDS, London,

Winchester Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...

M3 , J4 , The MIDLANDS, London, Winchester M3 , , - align="center" , 11.7
11.9 , 18.9
19.2 , Southampton, Eastleigh, Airport 20 airtransportation

A335 , J5 , Southampton, Eastleigh, Airport 20 airtransportation

A335 , , - align="center" , , , ''Non- existent'' , ''J6'' , 'Non-existent' , - align="center" , 15.5
15.7 , 24.9
25.2 , Hedge End A334 , J7 , Hedge End, Botley A334 , , - align="center" , 16.2
17.0 , 26.0
27.4 , Southampton, Hamble, East Docks A3024 , J8 , Southampton (E), Hamble A3024 , , - align="center" , 19.9
20.6 , 32.1
33.1 , Fareham (W) A27, Whiteley , J9 , Fareham (W) A27, Whiteley , , - align="center" , 23.2
23.5 , 37.4
37.8 , Alton A32 (No access from A32 to M27) , J10 , ''No exit'' , , - align="center" , 24.4
24.7 , 39.2
39.8 , Fareham (C) A27,

Gosport Gosport ( ) is a town and non-metropolitan borough on the south coast of Hampshire, South East England. At the 2011 Census, its population was 82,662. Gosport is situated on a peninsula on the western side of Portsmouth Harbour, opposite t ...

( A32) , J11 , Fareham (C) A27, Gosport (A32) , , - align="center" , 27.7
28.1 , 44.6
45.2 , Portsmouth, Ferries M275 , J12 , Cosham, Paulsgrove, Hilsea A27, Portsmouth (W), Ferries M275 , , - align="center" , rowspan="2", 29.0 , rowspan="2", 46.6 , ''Start of motorway'' , rowspan="2", ''Terminus'' , ''No exit, access to A3 via J12'' , rowspan="2", , - align="center" , Cosham A3(N), Hilsea A3(S) , ''Road continues as A27 to Havant, Portsmouth (E), Chichester,

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

and London (A3(M))'' , - align="center" , - , colspan=6, Notes *Distances in kilometres and carriageway identifiers are obtained from driver location signs/location marker posts. Where a junction spans several hundred metres (yards) and the data is available, both the start and finish values for the junction are shown. *Coordinate data from ACME Mapper. , -

Nearby attractions

Junction 1 is about ( by road) from The Rufus Stone, where King William II, also known as William Rufus, was killed in what may have been a hunting accident in 1100.As measured o
Google Maps
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References

External links

CBRD Motorway Database – M27TAB-MSAS: Photo Gallery: M27
{{DEFAULTSORT:2-0027 Motorways in England Roads in Hampshire Transport in Hampshire