A303 upgrade opens

Sparkford/Ilchester dialling has taken three years

After three years of roadworks, the A303 Sparkford to Ilchester upgrade has opened to traffic.

The £135 million -pound scheme has involved duelling a 3.5-mile section of single carriageway to unlock a major bottleneck in Somerset.

National Highways says new section will reduce travel time in the region and cut congestion. It has: 

• Upgraded 3.5 miles of existing single carriageway to dual carriageway.
• Built 3 new junctions at Camel Cross, Downhead and Hazlegrove which safely separate traffic.
• Built two new structures, a bridge at Steart Hill and an underpass at Hazlegrove, which will allow all road users to cross the A303 safely.
• Excavated and redistributed 900,000m3 of earth and soil to create cuttings up to 10m in depth and embankments up to 12m in height to provide a level route for the new road.
• Planted 89 individual native trees as well as creating four hectares, equivalent to 1,352 football pitches, of woodland and linear belts of trees, and more than six miles of new hedgerow

Work is continuing on the central reservation of the new road, local accesses, side roads and the surrounding landscape, and is expected to complete in the new year.