A144 road

The A144 is an A road in the English county of Suffolk. It runs from the town of Bungay, close to the border with Norfolk, to the A12 trunk road near the village of Darsham, passing through the market town of Halesworth. It is around 14 miles (23 km) in length and is single carriageway throughout.

A144
Route information
Length14.4 mi (23.2 km)
Major junctions
North endBungay (A143)
  A143
B1062
B1123 east to Blythburgh
B1123 west to Harleston
B1117 to Stradbroke
A12
South endA12
Road network

History

The A144 was first numbered in 1923 and originally ran from the outskirts of Norwich, through Bungay and Halesworth to the A12 at Darsham. The section north of Bungay was reclassified as the B1332 in the 1960s, reducing the length of the A144 by half.[1]

Prior to the building of the Bungay northern bypass in the 1980s the road started in central Bungay at the Buttercross market place. The bypass was completed in 1983,[2] re-routing the A143 around the northern edge of the town on the former Waveney Valley railway line which had closed to traffic in 1966. This led to the extension of the A144 as far as the bypass. The A143 had previously run through Bungay.[1]

Route description

The A144 runs through the towns of Bungay and Halesworth in a generally north–south direction. It generally runs through rural areas along its route.[3]

Bungay section

The A144 has its northernmost point at the roundabout with the A143 on the northern edge of Bungay near the Clays printing factory.[4] It passes through the centre of the town, becoming part of the Bungay one way system established on a permanent basis in 2014.[5][6] This splits the road in places before it is reunited at the southern edge of the town centre having passed the grade I listed St Mary's Church. The road then passes Bungay Pool and Gym on the southern edge of the town before entering a rural section.[3]

Bungay to Halesworth
The A144 at Stone Street, Spexhall

South of Bungay the A144 runs through the parishes of St John, Ilketshall and St Lawrence, Ilketshall, passing close to both parish churches. Between St Lawrence and Halesworth it follows the route of the Roman Stone Street for around 5.5 miles (8.9 km).[3] Throughout this section the road is subject to a number of speed restrictions to slow traffic through villages and improve road safety.[7] In Spexhall parish it crosses the Lowestoft to Ipswich railway before arriving at the northern edge of Halesworth.[3]

The road crosses the railway again near Halesworth railway station before bypassing the town centre to the east. The bypass was built in the late 1980s and leaves the town centre mainly pedestrianised.[8] The B1123 from the east meets the A144 at the northern edge of the town centre, linking Halesworth to the A145 at Blythburgh. South of the town centre the westward section of the B1123 towards Metfield and Harleston joins the road, before the junction with the B1117 towards Laxfield and Stradbroke is reached.[3]

The A144 at Bramfield

Halesworth to the A12

The road then re-enters a rural section, crossing the River Blyth before crossing the railway for a third time at a level crossing adjacent to Halesworth Golf Club. The A144 then runs through the centre of the village of Bramfield before reaching the A12 main trunk road between Great Yarmouth and London to the north of the village of Darsham.[3]

Road Safety

The A144 is generally straight and has no record of significant safety issues. It has generally been rated as medium or low–medium risk in European Road Assessment Programme (EuroRAP) surveys.[9][10] There were nine fatalities associated with road traffic accidents along its length between 1999 and 2010.[11]

Congestion in Bungay has caused some safety problems on the A144[12] and a one-way system was established in the town in 2014,[5] the town having been bypassed to the north for east–west traffic in the 1980s.[2] The road is limited to 30 miles per hour in Bungay and Halesworth as well as through some village areas.[7] Some 40 mph and 50 mph restrictions are also in place either side of slower speed areas. Suffolk Constabulary operate mobile speed cameras on the road to enforce speed limits.[13] On-road cycle lanes, footpaths and pedestrian crossings are used within built up areas to support road safety, as do roundabouts at the northern junction of the road with the A143 and in Halesworth.

References
  1. Ordnance Survey One-inch to the mile, Seventh Series, 1955-1961, available at the National Library of Scotland. Retrieved 2015-10-24.
  2. Reeve.C (2013) Bungay Through Time, Amberley Publishing Limited. Available online, retrieved 2015-10-24.
  3. Landranger Sheet 156 - Saxmundham, Aldeburgh & Southwold, Ordnance Survey 1:50 000 sheet, 2015-10-21.
  4. Landranger Sheet 134 - Norwich & the Broads, Ordnance Survey 1:50 000 sheet, 2015-10-21.
  5. One-way system in Bungay to be made permanent, Beccles and Bungay Journal, 2013-12-21. Retrieved 2015-10-24.
  6. Bungay referendum to be held over roadworks, BBC news website, 2014-02-07. Retrieved 2015-10-24.
  7. Action soon on A144 safety?, East Anglian Daily Times, 2003-09-04. Retrieved 2015-10-21.
  8. Halesworth – Local History, Halesworth and District Museum. Retrieved 2015-10-21.
  9. Simple Measures Save Lives Archived 2015-09-24 at the Wayback Machine, Road Safety Foundation, May 2011. Retrieved 2015-10-21.
  10. Measuring to Manage - Tracking the safety of Britain's major road network Archived 2015-09-24 at the Wayback Machine, Road Safety Foundation, 2013. Retrieved 2015-10-21.
  11. Every death on every road in Great Britain 1999-2010, BBC news website. Data extracted for incidents on the A144 in Waveney District. Retrieved 2015-10-21.
  12. MP lends support to Bungay bypass, Beccles and Bungay journal, 2010-06-11. Retrieved 2015-10-24.
  13. Safecam, Suffolk Constabulary. Retrieved 2015-10-21.

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