The M27 is a

motorway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

, England. It is long and runs between Cadnam and

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most d ...

. It was opened in stages between 1975 and 1983, providing the largest two urban areas in

( Southampton and

) with a direct motorway link. It is unfinished, as an extension into the county of West Sussex was planned but never constructed. A number of smaller motorways were proposed, connecting the city centres of Southampton and Portsmouth to the motorway; of these only the M271 and M275 were built. Three sections of the M27 have since been widened to four lanes each way, the first between Junctions 7 and 8, the second between Junctions 3 and 4, and the third begins at the slip road where Junction 11 joins until mid-way to junction 12.

Route

Running approximately parallel both to the coast of the Solent and to the A27, the M27 starts as an eastwards continuation of the A31 from Bournemouth and Poole, at Cadnam in the New Forest. The motorway meets the A36 from Salisbury, crosses the Wessex Main Line railway, and then meets the M271 to central Southampton. After the M271, the road becomes a dual four lane motorway and passes Rownhams services, it then meets the M3, (two lanes going off, two lanes continuing to the other side of the junction) reverting to a dual three lane motorway as it passes to the north of Southampton, passes Southampton Airport, meeting Junction 7 and becoming dual four lanes again, then becoming dual three lanes after Junction 8, it then runs alongside the West Coastway Line as it heads south-east towards Fareham. It then runs alongside the northern outskirts of Fareham, briefly with a fourth climbing lane in either direction, before its junction with the M275 to

. Very shortly after this point the motorway ends, becoming the A27, a four lane dual carriageway almost to motorway standards until the junction with the A3 (M) Motorway. The official reason for this section of road not being a continuation of the motorway is the

hard shoulder A shoulder, hard shoulder (British) or breakdown lane, is an emergency stopping lane by the verge of a road or motorway, on the right side in countries which drive on the right, and on the left side in countries which drive on the left. Many wid ...

s being too narrow. Although the M275 which the M27 junctions with, has no official hard shoulders throughout its entire length.

History

Opening dates

The M27 was opened in stages (in common with many UK motorways) between 1975 and 1983. *Junction 1 to 2 opened 20 August 1975 *Junction 2 to 4 opened in December 1975 *Junction 4 to 7 opened in 1983 *Junction 7 to 8 opened in February 1978 *Junction 8 to 12 opened in March 1976 The South Stoneham Crematorium, which was located north of South Stoneham Cemetery, was demolished during 1973 to make way for the construction of the M27 motorway. The South Stoneham garden of remembrance is now located at the north end of the cemetery, adjacent to the motorway.

Unfulfilled plans

It has been said that the M27 was intended as a motorway connecting south coast towns from Penzance to Ramsgate. However the only proposal of a route similar to that was by the Institution of Highway Engineers in 1936. Road developments in the New Forest are also restricted due to its national park status. The M27 was meant to be extended to

Chichester Chichester () is a cathedral city and civil parish in West Sussex, England.OS Explorer map 120: Chichester, South Harting and Selsey Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton B2 edition. Publishing Date:2009. It is the only ...

; a sign of this is the width of the A27 road between Junction 12 and the junction with the A3(M), which has 3-or-4 lanes, a hard shoulder and grade-separated junctions. It is not part of the M27 as its hard shoulders are not quite wide enough to comply with motorway regulations. The M272 was meant to go from Junction 5 through Portswood to the centre of Southampton. The M272 was instead built (in much-reduced form) as the A335 Thomas Lewis Way. Junction 6 was never built – there were plans for a motorway spur (probably to be numbered M273) connecting the M27 to the centre of the

Townhill Park Townhill Park is a suburb of Southampton, England, bordering Swaythling, Bitterne Park and West End. It is built on land which once belonged to the house which carries the same name. History The Manor of Townhill was granted to Si ...

area of Southampton. A planned service area just east of Junction 9 was never constructed. The long westbound exit slip road at Junction 9 was designed to allow an entry to and exit from the service area.

2015 incident

In November 2015, an elderly woman, Marion Munns, died after falling from the A3057 bridge that crosses over the M27, into westbound traffic, just before Junction 3. She had not taken her anti-psychotic medication, and escaped from her Southampton home through an upstairs window before climbing off the garage roof and running away.

Smart Motorway Conversion

In March 2018, work began to convert the section between Junction 11 and Junction 4 to a Smart motorway. The scheme will turn the hard shoulder into a permanent 4th running lane, adding refuge areas along the route and installing new CCTV and speed cameras with mandatory variable speed limit signs. In early January 2019, official work began when average speed cameras were switched on between J5 and J4. Average speed cameras further along on the scheme will be turned on as work continues along the route. The work has suffered repeated delays, originally due to be complete in Spring 2021. The commissioning phase began in mid February 2022, during which time the smart motorway technology will be tested, including stopped vehicle detection radars. This is with a fully open carriageway and a 60mph speed limit controlled by electronic signs on new gantries and CCTV and speed cameras. The 60mph limit was lifted on 29th June 2022 when the upgraded section was fully opened and returned to the national speed limit.

Junctions

Data from

driver location signs Driver location signs are signs placed every along each side of English motorways, and some other major English roads, to provide information that will allow motorists to know their precise location. , roads in England, but not Scotland, Wale ...

are used to provide distance and carriageway identifier information. Where a junction spans several hundred metres (yards) and start and end points are available, both are cited. {, style="margin-left:1em; margin-bottom:1em; color:black; font-size:95%;" class="wikitable" , - style="background:#0080d0; text-align:center; color:white; font-size:120%;" , colspan="6" , M27 motorway junctions , - !scope=col, miles !scope=col, km !scope=col abbr="Westbound", Westbound exits (B carriageway) !scope=col, Junction !scope=col abbr="Eastbound", Eastbound exits (A carriageway) !scope=col, Coordinates , - align="center" , rowspan="2", 0.0
1.2 , rowspan="2", 0.0
2.0 , ''Road continues as A31 to The WEST, Weymouth, Poole, Bournemouth and Ringwood , rowspan="2", ''Terminus''
J1 , Cadnam A336,

Brook A brook is a small river or natural stream of fresh water. It may also refer to: Computing *Brook, a programming language for GPU programming based on C *Brook+, an explicit data-parallel C compiler * BrookGPU, a framework for GPGPU programmin ...

, Bramshaw B3079, Lyndhurst A337
, rowspan="2", , - align="center" ,

The New Forest The New Forest is one of the largest remaining tracts of unenclosed pasture land, heathland and forest in Southern England, covering southwest Hampshire and southeast Wiltshire. It was proclaimed a royal forest by William the Conqueror, ...

, Cadnam, Lyndhurst A337
, ''Start of motorway'' , - align="center" , 4.2
4.6 , 6.8
7.4 , Salisbury A36, Fawley A326 , J2 , Salisbury, Romsey A36, Fawley A326, Paultons Park , , - align="center" , 6.6
6.8 , 10.6
11.0 , Southampton, The Docks M271(S), Romsey M271(N) , J3 , Southampton, The Docks M271 , , - align="center" , , , '' Rownhams Services (

Roadchef Roadchef is a company which operates 21 motorway service areas in the United Kingdom. It is the third-largest motorway service area operator in the country, behind Moto and Welcome Break and followed by Extra. History Roadchef was founded in ...

)'' , ''Services'' , ''Rownhams Services (

)'' , , - align="center" , 9.4
9.8 , 15.2
15.7 , The MIDLANDS, London, Winchester M3 , J4 , The MIDLANDS, London, Winchester M3 , , - align="center" , 11.7
11.9 , 18.9
19.2 , Southampton, Eastleigh,

Airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surfa ...

A335 , J5 , Southampton, Eastleigh, Airport 20 airtransportation

A335 , , - align="center" , , , ''Non- existent'' , ''J6'' , 'Non-existent' , - align="center" , 15.5
15.7 , 24.9
25.2 ,

Hedge End Hedge End is a town and civil parish in Hampshire, England. Situated to the east of the City of Southampton, it adjoins the districts of West End and Botley. Hedge End lies within the Borough of Eastleigh and is part of the Southampton Urba ...

A334 , J7 , Hedge End, Botley A334 , , - align="center" , 16.2
17.0 , 26.0
27.4 , Southampton, Hamble, East Docks A3024 , J8 , Southampton (E), Hamble A3024 , , - align="center" , 19.9
20.6 , 32.1
33.1 , Fareham (W) A27, Whiteley , J9 , Fareham (W) A27, Whiteley , , - align="center" , 23.2
23.5 , 37.4
37.8 , Alton A32 (No access from A32 to M27) , J10 , ''No exit'' , , - align="center" , 24.4
24.7 , 39.2
39.8 , Fareham (C) A27, Gosport ( A32) , J11 , Fareham (C) A27, Gosport (A32) , , - align="center" , 27.7
28.1 , 44.6
45.2 ,

, Ferries M275 , J12 , Cosham,

Paulsgrove Paulsgrove is an area of northern Portsmouth, Hampshire, England. Initially a small independent hamlet for many centuries, it was admitted to the city limits in 1920 and grew rapidly after the end of the Second World War. History Paulsgrove exi ...

Hilsea Hilsea is a district of the city of Portsmouth in the English county of Hampshire. Hilsea is home to one of Portsmouth's main sports and leisure facilities – the Mountbatten centre. Trafalgar School (formerly the City of Portsmouth Boys' School ...

A27, Portsmouth (W), Ferries M275 , , - align="center" , rowspan="2", 29.0 , rowspan="2", 46.6 , ''Start of motorway'' , rowspan="2", ''Terminus'' , ''No exit, access to A3 via J12'' , rowspan="2", , - align="center" , Cosham A3(N),

A3(S) , ''Road continues as A27 to Havant, Portsmouth (E),

, Brighton and London (A3(M))'' , - align="center" , - , colspan=6, Notes *Distances in kilometres and carriageway identifiers are obtained from

/location marker posts. Where a junction spans several hundred metres (yards) and the data is available, both the start and finish values for the junction are shown. *Coordinate data from ACME Mapper. , -

Nearby attractions

Junction 1 is about ( by road) from The Rufus Stone, where King William II, also known as William Rufus, was killed in what may have been a hunting accident in 1100.As measured o
Google Maps
/ref>

References

External links

CBRD Motorway Database – M27TAB-MSAS: Photo Gallery: M27
{{DEFAULTSORT:2-0027 Motorways in England Roads in Hampshire Transport in Hampshire