The Southern Distributor Road (SDR) is a principal distributor road in Newport that runs from the Coldra roundabout ( M4 junction 24) in the east of Newport to

Tredegar Park Tredegar Park () is a country park situated in the Coedkernew area of Newport, Wales. It lies close to junction 28 of the M4 motorway The M4, originally the London-South Wales Motorway, is the third longest motorway in the United Kingd ...

M4 Junction 28) in the west of Newport and includes City Bridge, a bow-string arch bridge spanning the

River Usk The River Usk (; ) rises on the northern slopes of the Black Mountain (''y Mynydd Du''), Wales, in the westernmost part of the Brecon Beacons National Park. Initially forming the boundary between Carmarthenshire and Powys, it flows north int ...

. Combined with the M4 in the north, the SDR forms the southern part of a

ring road A ring road (also known as circular road, beltline, beltway, circumferential (high)way, loop or orbital) is a road or a series of connected roads encircling a town, city or country. The most common purpose of a ring road is to assist in reducin ...

for the city. The new road completed in 2004 encompassed Ringland Way, Spytty Road, East Dock Road, Usk Way and Docks Way. The eastern section (Ringland Way) and the western section (Docks Way) were originally built with reserved land to one side for eventual widening. The SDR plans were drawn up to make use of this land and to join the two sections together across the river to form a continuous dual carriageway from one side of the city to the other. On completion it assumed the number

A48 A48 may refer to: * A48 motorway (France), a road connecting the A43 and Grenoble * A48 road (Great Britain), a road connecting Gloucester, England and Carmarthen, Wales * Autovía A-48, a motorway under construction connecting Cadiz and Algecira ...

replacing the Chepstow Road/Cardiff Road corridor which was downgraded to B4237. The urban regeneration company Newport Unlimited described the opening of the SDR as a critical piece of Newport's regeneration jigsaw. The new road was designed to improve the environment in the

city centre A city centre, also known as an urban core, is the Commerce, commercial, Culture, cultural and often the historical, Politics, political, and geographic heart of a city. The term "city centre" is primarily used in British English, and closely e ...

, taking traffic away from residential areas, and improving access to industrial areas in the east and south of the

city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

Facts and figures

* The road and associated structures were built as part of a

Private Finance Initiative The private finance initiative (PFI) was a United Kingdom government procurement policy aimed at creating "public–private partnerships" (PPPs) where private firms are contracted to complete and manage public projects. Initially launched in 1992 ...

. * The route extends from M4 junction 24 Coldra roundabout in the east, to Ebbw Bridge roundabout in the west (as the A48). The A48 itself continues to M4 junction 28. * The road is a fully kerbed

tarmacadam Tarmacadam or tarmac is a concrete road surface, road surfacing material made by combining tar and macadam (crushed stone and sand), patented by Welsh inventor Edgar Purnell Hooley in 1902. It is a more durable and dust-free enhancement of simpl ...

dual carriageway. * There are link roads,

roundabout A roundabout, a rotary and a traffic circle are types of circular intersection or junction in which road traffic is permitted to flow in one direction around a central island, and priority is typically given to traffic already in the junct ...

s, junctions, continuous

footpath A footpath (also pedestrian way, walking trail, nature trail) is a type of thoroughfare that is intended for use only by pedestrians and not other forms of traffic such as Motor vehicle, motorized vehicles, bicycles and horseback, horses. They ...

, cycleways,

fencing Fencing is a combat sport that features sword fighting. It consists of three primary disciplines: Foil (fencing), foil, épée, and Sabre (fencing), sabre (also spelled ''saber''), each with its own blade and set of rules. Most competitive fe ...

, noise barriers and street furniture. * The highlight of the route is the 650 ft (200-metre)-long steel, bow string arch City Bridge over the River Usk. * The site of the new crossing is between the 40-year-old George Street Bridge, Britain's first

cable-stayed bridge A cable-stayed bridge has one or more ''towers'' (or ''pylons''), from which wire rope, cables support the bridge deck. A distinctive feature are the cables or wikt:stay#Etymology 3, stays, which run directly from the tower to the deck, norm ...

and the Newport Transporter Bridge, which is over 100 years old. * There are nine roundabouts on the SDR and four subways. * More than 200 staff worked on putting it together. * 4,000 cones; 127,000 tonnes of

asphalt Asphalt most often refers to: * Bitumen, also known as "liquid asphalt cement" or simply "asphalt", a viscous form of petroleum mainly used as a binder in asphalt concrete * Asphalt concrete, a mixture of bitumen with coarse and fine aggregates, u ...

and

macadam Macadam is a type of road construction pioneered by Scottish engineer John Loudon McAdam , in which crushed stone is placed in shallow, convex layers and compacted thoroughly. A binding layer of stone dust (crushed stone from the original mat ...

; 4,000 tonnes of

steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...

were used in the making of the SDR.

References

Newport City Council: Newport Southern Distributor Road
{{coord, 51.5768, N, 2.97447, W, region:GB_dim:2000, display=title Buildings and structures in Newport, Wales Transport in Newport, Wales Southern Distributor Road