A27 Road - Description

Description

The road starts at its junction with the A36 at Whiteparish. It runs through Romsey, Swaythling, West End and Bursledon. It then closely parallels the south coast and travels on via Fareham, Cosham, Havant, Chichester, Arundel, Worthing, Shoreham-by-Sea, Brighton, Hove, Falmer, Lewes and Polegate where it then terminates at Pevensey in East Sussex.

A section of the A27 running from the eastern end of the M27 to the end of the road at Pevensey forms part of the long-distance South Coast Trunk Road. Much of the road has been improved to dual carriageway standard, with the westernmost section of the trunk portion even having as much as four lanes plus a hard shoulder in each direction, and on a motorway alignment with grade-separated junctions. This is perhaps a reflection that the M27 was once proposed to run as far as Chichester.

The road runs east from Portsmouth to Havant. Beyond Havant the dual carriageway east has no junctions in it until it reaches Chichester, where the by-pass, has five roundabouts that disrupt the mainline flow of the road. The Chichester by-pass is regularly subject to congestion and although a public inquiry has proposed improvements, those improvements are currently on hold.

East of Chichester the road largely retains a two-lane dual-carriageway standard. There are, however a couple of sections of single-carriageway; at Arundel, where a proposed bypass scheme was dropped in 2003, and at Worthing, where the possibility of a bypass has often been discussed since 1967, even getting as far as passing the inspector's report at a public inquiry, but was dropped in 1996 following rising costs. These are both areas of known traffic congestion during times of peak usage.

At the junction of the A27 and the A24, the A27 has a brief gap where the road is designated 'A24' before continuing from the 'Grove Lodge' roundabout where the road is named "Upper Brighton Road".

After Worthing, the A27 passes through Lancing and crosses the River Adur near Shoreham. It then runs through the Southwick Hill Tunnel, crossing into East Sussex where it passes into a narrow cutting.

Later, it passes Brighton — where it has in the past been known as the Brighton Bypass — and around the South Downs. This stretch of road often is slow in the morning rush hour.

It then passes around Falmer with this section of road having three lanes in each direction but loses the third lane later. When Brighton and Hove Albion play at home this section can become congested due to its proximity to The American Express Community Stadium.

Afterwards, it passes south of Lewes where it meets the A26 road to Newhaven.

Here, the road becomes a single carriageway standard and, until 2008, crossed a level crossing until it was bypassed.

The south coast multi model study recommended a dual carriageway, but the Highways Agency built it to a cheaper single-carriageway standard. Plans are still proposed for upgrading this later.

The road afterwards reverts to a dual carriageway with access to the A22, which provides links to Eastbourne and Hailsham.

The road then. once again. turns into a single carriageway near Pevensey, where the road ends, and the South Coast Trunk Road transfers over to the A259; this coast road starts in Emsworth and shadows the route of the A27.