Longbridge Interchange (also known as ''Longbridge Island'') is a major road and motorway junction between

Warwick Warwick ( ) is a market town, civil parish and the county town of Warwickshire in the Warwick District in England, adjacent to the River Avon. It is south of Coventry, and south-east of Birmingham. It is adjoined with Leamington Spa and Whi ...

and

Sherbourne, Warwickshire Sherbourne is a village and civil parish in the Warwick district of Warwickshire, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 Census was 174. Geography and administration Sherbourne is 3 miles south of the county town Warwick and a ...

, connecting the

A46 road The A46 is a major A road in England. It starts east of Bath, Somerset and ends in Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire, but it does not form a continuous route. Large portions of the old road have been lost, bypassed, or replaced by motorway developm ...

and

A429 road A4 most often refers to: *A4 paper, a paper size defined by the ISO 216 standard, measuring 210 × 297 mm A4 and variants may also refer to: Science and mathematics * British NVC community A4 (''Hydrocharis morsus-ranae - Stratiotes aloide ...

respectively to the

M40 motorway The M40 motorway links London, Oxford and Birmingham in England, a distance of approximately . The motorway is dual three lanes except for junction 1A to junction 3 (which is dual four lanes) a short section in-between the exit and entry slip-r ...

at junction 15. For many years, it was deemed inadequate in handling the volume of traffic, which in 2009 was estimated to be in the region of 75,000 vehicles daily; a bypass was built during 2008-2009 which relieved congestion.

Improvements

Work commenced in March 2008 to build a dual-carriageway bypass of the island, involving a four-span bridge over the M40 motorway. In December 2009, the bypass opened as part of a £71 million investment and estimated to reduce traffic at the roundabout by 40%. During planning of the bypass in 2007, residents in the local village of

campaigned against its construction, claiming in a public enquiry that the village would suffer flooding and significantly increased traffic as a result of the bypass. The

Highways Agency National Highways, formerly the Highways Agency and later Highways England, is a government-owned company charged with operating, maintaining and improving motorways and major A roads in England. It also sets highways standards used by all fo ...

received 72 written objections to the original proposals, although there was considerable public support for an alternate proposal which involved the bypass being built to the west. The alternate proposal received the backing of the parish council and many landowners affected by the scheme.

Road safety

Prior to the bypass, there were a reported 68 accidents at the interchange in the four years up to 2009.

References

External links

Bad Junctions - Longbridge Island
{{UK motorways Road junctions in England Motorway junctions in England