A35 road


The A35 is a road in southern England, connecting Honiton in Devon and Southampton in Hampshire. It is a trunk road for some of its length. Most of its route passes through Dorset and the New Forest. It originally connected Exeter and Southampton, the original A35 ran along what is now the A3052 joining the present road at Charmouth.

Route

Beginning in Honiton off the A30 road, the A35 travels in a roughly south-easterly direction past Axminster, Charmouth and Bridport. After Bridport, there is a section of dual carriageway, before it reaches its bypass around Dorchester. After Dorchester, there are approximately of dual carriageway, including the Puddletown bypass, until it reaches its roundabout with the A31 road at Bere Regis. Continuing roughly south-easterly still, it becomes dual carriageway again near Upton, before returning to a single carriageway through Poole and Bournemouth, apart from a small section of dual carriageway on Wessex Way. On reaching Christchurch, there is a dual-carriageway bypass. It then heads in a north-easterly direction through the New Forest, passing through Lyndhurst where it meets the A337 road. It continues through Ashurst and Totton, meeting the A36 road and M271 motorway at grade separated junctions. It then turns north-east, acting as the western part of Southampton's ring road, with the A27 road making up the eastern part. It terminates at Swaythling, on the northern outskirts of Southampton.
In Bournemouth, it has been diverted around the Sovereign Centre of Boscombe along Centenary Way; much of its former road is now pedestrianised. Its route through Poole and Bournemouth passes through suburbs.

Improvements

The A35 is a main route along England's south coast, and is congested. To help solve the congestion, sections of the A35 were upgraded between Honiton and Bere Regis. Some improvements have involved the construction of new dual carriageway bypasses such as the Puddletown bypass which opened in 1999, and others include new sections of single carriageway road, such as its straightening between Slepe and the Upton bypass in 2004, and the extension of the limit west of Slepe by in 2007. The Puddletown dual carriageway were financed under a Design, Build, Finance and Operate contract running from 1996-2026.