MT 120/215

Trunk road preparation pool schemes: South Eastern RCU; M25 South Orbital Motorway; Egham to Chertsey section; discussion of scheme

Date range	1968-1971
Location	National Archives (see all files stored here)
Catalogue	See entry
File base	Series MT, subseries MT 120

Context

This file refers to what is now the M25 between junctions 11 and 13, reaching from Weybridge to Egham and crossing the M3. In the late 1960s there was the intention to provide this section of road as part of the M3 project, but for various reasons it was delayed. In the end the interchange at Thorpe was built as part of the M3 project, and the M25 north of there to Egham followed very shortly afterwards. The remainder, J11-12, was delayed until 1980.

The file begins at the point a preliminary report is written to justify construction of this length of road as part of the South Orbital Road and on its own merits. Its initial purpose would be to provide access to and from the M3 for people in the densely-populated areas around Weybridge and Egham; without it the M3 would have no access points between Sunbury and Lightwater. There is a huge amount of material here about traffic modelling and anticipated turning flows in all directions at Thorpe interchange. All show surprisingly low numbers continuing through on M3.

Traffic forecasts for this road once the rest of the South Orbital was built and connected to it suggested that D4M was required, and at this stage, that was considered utterly exceptional. Special authorisation was requested from so far up the chain that it can't have been far short of someone writing to the Queen. The bottom line was that D3M was considered the absolute maximum, and policy stated that, should a D3M motorway reach a point where it was overloaded, a parallel route to relieve it should be built. The M23 was a special case because D3M was clearly and unambiguously insufficient and there was nowhere to provide a parallel route in future. Here, the RCU was attempting to make the case that the western side of SOR was a similarly special case.

Contents of note

• Annotated OS plan showing a different line for M25 around Iver and Richings Park.
• Newspaper cutting about aborted M25 inquiry for Westerham area, mentioning the dramatically named "Westerham Interchange Resistance Group".
• OS sheet annotated with M3 and M25 lines as planned at this time.

People with camera copies

Chris Marshall has a partial copy.