A350 Road

A350 Road

The A350 is a north-south primary route in southern England, that runs from the M4 motorway in Wiltshire to Poole in Dorset. Starting at junction 17 of the M4 motorway north of Chippenham (51°30′53″N 2°07′18″W / 51.5148°N 2.1217°W / 51.5148; -2.1217 (A350 road (northern end))), it goes past the small village of Lacock and then through the towns of Melksham, Westbury, Warminster, Shaftesbury and Blandford Forum, ending in Poole beside Poole Harbour, an English Channel port (50°42′31″N 1°59′35″W / 50.7087°N 1.9931°W / 50.7087; -1.9931 (A350 road (southern end))). There have been many bypasses built along the A350, including at Shaftesbury in the 1950s, Chippenham, Warminster, Blandford Forum and most recently south of Melksham at Semington. The Semington stretch was made wide enough for future carriageway 'dualling' should it be required. Most parts of the route are single carriageway with a few short tracts of dual carriageway.

The section between Chippenham and Warminster also takes in the towns of Melksham and Westbury, plus several villages. Nevertheless, this entire stretch of the A350 remains a single carriageway. This section frequently becomes congested due to the close proximity of several sizeable population centres over a relatively short distance (whose thousands of commuters are served by only a single-lane road), and the fact that it is also a major trunk road linking the M4 to the port of Poole, used by thousands of heavy goods vehicles each week.

However, parts of the road - particularly the section between Shaftesbury and Blandford Forum - remain almost completely unimproved; in at least one location the road is not wide enough to allow two lorries to pass safely, and the remainder of the Shaftesbury-Blandford stretch is narrow with several dangerous blind corners, resembling almost B-Road status.