M31 motorway

UK motorway routebox
motorway= M31
length-mi= 22
length-km= 35
direction= south-east to north-west
start= M25
destinations= Woking
Bracknell
Wokingham
Reading
end= Reading town centre
opening-date= 1973
completion-date=1975 (A329(M))
junctions= M3 The M31 motorway was planned as a Reading to M3 motorway which was dubbed the 'M3 - M4 link motorway'. It would have provided a direct high speed route between the two motorways. The motorway was planned at the same time as the largely unrealised London Ringways scheme and an additional section was planned that would have taken the M31 south and east from the M3 to connect to the scheme's Ringway 4 (now the M25) providing a shorter route for traffic travelling between the west and Surrey and Kent.

Only part of the planned route was built; it bears the designations A329(M) and A3290.Had the motorway been constructed it would have provided an alternative to the south-west section of the M25, reducing the motorway journey between Reading and Byfleet by approximately 10 miles and alleviating traffic on what is the M25's busiest section [ [http://www.racfoundation.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=266&Itemid=32 RAC foundation] ] [ [http://www.highways.gov.uk/roads/projects/4094.aspx Highways Agency] ] .

Route

The M31 was planned to start at a junction with the M3, just north of Junction 3. It would have then skirted the east of Bagshot and would have had a junction with the A322 and the A332 just north of the town. The motorway would have then turned west and gone through Bracknell forest to its next junction on the south west of Bracknell, at the crossroads between the A3095 and the B3430. The M31 would have turned north toward the current southern terminus of the A329(M) where it meets the A329 and the B3408. It would have then followed the current line of the A329(M) and the A3290 (previously the northern section of the A329(M)) into Reading and would have terminated in the town centre on the B3345 close to Reading station.

The A329(M) was opened between 1973 and 1975. The northernmost section beyond the end of the A3290 was not built.

Additional section

The planned section south of the M3 would have then seen the motorway extend south-east to just north of Woking, where there would have been a junction at the current crossroads of the A245 and the A320. The motorway would have then continued through Pyrford in an easterly direction, terminating on Ringway 4 near Byfleet as an additional section of the Ringway 4/A3 junction (M25 junc 10) providing an eastbound routing only.

References

External links

* [http://pathetic.org.uk Pathetic Motorways]
** [http://pathetic.org.uk/unbuilt/m31/ M31]
** [http://pathetic.org.uk/unbuilt/m31/maps/ M31 route map]
** [http://pathetic.org.uk/current/a329m/maps/a329m-extension.shtml Map of planned northern section of M31/A329(M)]
* [http://www.cbrd.co.uk/motorway/a329m/ CBRD - A329(M)]