The A36 is a trunk road and primary route in southwest England that links the port city ofSouthampton to the city of Bath. At Bath, the A36 connects with the A4 road toBristol, thus providing a road link between the major ports of Southampton and Bristol. It also provides a link between Bristol and London via the A303. Originally, the A36 continued to Avonmouth, but this section was renumbered to the A4. Within Bath the A36 acts as a ringroad on the southern side of the river from the junction with the A4 at Newbridge to the west, with another link to the A4 on the eastern side at Cleveland Bridge, which also provides a route to the A46 and M4 motorway and is highly congested. Plans to alleviate this by bypassingBathampton have long been proposed and several properties have remained derelict for many decades due to indecision. Part of the proposal bypassing Batheaston between the A4 and A46 was built at enormous expense, but despite crossing to the south side of the river it was never linked to the A36 on either side of Bathampton, therefore defeating much of its intended purposes. On its way south from Bath, the A36 encounters difficult terrain at Limpley Stoke before passing a number of towns and a city, including Frome, Warminster, Wilton and Salisbury in Wiltshire, and Totton in Hampshire, on the western outskirts of Southampton, where it joins the A35.
Standard of route
The majority of the A36 is built to single carriageway standard, but parts of it have been upgraded to dual carriageway. The A36 is dual carriageway for its 1 mile bypass of the village of Beckington, 3 miles , briefly combined with the A361 north of Frome. It shares part of Warminster bypass with the A350. It is also dualled for approximately 1 mile near its grade separated junction with the A303 road, 8 miles north-west of Wilton. The A36 in Salisbury acts as the city's ring road, bypassing the city centre to dual carriageway standard. Just south-east of Salisbury the largest dualled section runs for about 4 miles , bypassing the village of Alderbury. Then, the road is briefly dualled from its roundabout with the A3090 road to the M27 motorway - this part of the road is erroneously thought by some to have been previously known as the A36; prior to the opening of the Totton Western Bypass on the other side of the junction, it was named as a spur of the M27, and hence is built to motorway standards. The A36 reverts to single carriageway standard through Totton until it terminates.
