Talk:A38 road

Untitled
Date of extension from Derby to M1 and Mansfield is given from memory (it was the same time as Derby inner ring road IIRC).

Primary Destinations.
Could we add a list of primary destinations on the road. 20:03, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

Recent Edits
Does anyone feel the recent edits do not really add anything to the article? It just seems to make the article longer with too many links, while not adding too much useful information. How would people feel about reverting to the [previous version] by SmackBot? jenuk1985 (talk) 00:45, 24 October 2008 (UTC)
 * Just a warning that I am going to start rewriting the route section in a few days time, if anyone else wants to get in there and have a go before me... feel free! jenuk1985 (talk) 16:01, 29 November 2008 (UTC)

Marsh Mills Slip Road Replacement
I recall that in the 1990's (I think, as I was young at the time) the slip roads at the Marsh Mills junction were replaced by a pioneering method of sliding the newly constructed slip roads into place. As this was so new at the time I remember that the Italian President or PM came to witness this. Does anyone remember why the replacement was needed, when it took place or any further information? After brief searching, all I found was a mention by the company that carried it out (HOCHTIEF (UK) Construction). If we can get more info/refs it should be good to put into the 'Improvements' Section. Zangar (talk) 15:10, 23 March 2009 (UTC)
 * I seem to remember seeing some information on this dotted around, I'll see if I can dig it out over the next few days. I'm planning on having a go at rewriting this article to attempt to get it up to GA standard so I'll try to include it. Jenuk1985  |  Talk  15:13, 23 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Thanks for that, I've added a page for the A374 now if that helps. Feel free to review that and leave suggestions for my future editting/creation of these pages on my talk page. Zangar (talk) 18:18, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

I think I've finally found something to give a vague date towards this at the Independant Online. So it looks as if it was carried out in the mid 1990s and was due to concrete cancer, this should narrow down the searching! Also, are we able to use current and old OS maps as references, eg for how a road changed over time? Zangar (talk) 02:21, 26 March 2009 (UTC)
 * I have managed to dig out the following articles:   which gives quite a bit of information that could be incorporated. Yes maps can in theory be used as sources, but it is very difficult to date specific changes using them (unless you have two maps a year apart, one without the change, and another with the change, but even then it is not totally reliable, as they sometimes take a while to catch up).  Jenuk1985  |  Talk  13:16, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

Structure of improvements section
I moved a lot of detail from the route section into the improvements section, as a result of this I split the improvements into counties, which seemed the most appropriate at the time (bear in mind, these sections will expand quite a bit over the coming days/weeks). But on the other hand, I feel it may be a bit excessive, does anybody have any suggestions on a better way to split this? There may be too many (major) improvements to realistically split into a section for each improvement as is commonly done on roads pages. Jenuk1985 |  Talk  19:36, 23 March 2009 (UTC)


 * Most of the improvements section is unreferenced. It should be possible to get a reference for the date each section of road opened.--TimTay (talk) 19:48, 23 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Yeah, most of the content is from the original route section which was largely unreferenced. The dates seem appropriate, so I don't feel we'd be justified in removing them until we have made a good attempt at finding sources. I can source some of the more recent improvements, and I'm sure that with a bit of digging, the older ones will come to us too. (Apologies for the original edit, it was a rather rough and ready reorganisation as a starting point for expansion) Jenuk1985  |  Talk  19:51, 23 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Also of note is that the M5 Collumpton bypass actually opened as the A38, but that is really a tough one to find references for, I may have to locate the Devon archives for that one and go digging. I'm surprised such an "important" thing has so little coverage. Jenuk1985  |  Talk  19:55, 23 March 2009 (UTC)


 * No it is referenced, in a book on motorways, which I can borrow.Pyrotec (talk) 19:59, 23 March 2009 (UTC)
 * That would be great (as an aside, I understand that book has images of the original bypass, would you be willing to scan it and e-mail them to me, just out of personal interest? Jenuk1985  |  Talk  20:05, 23 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Its this one, Charlesworth, George (1984), pp.135-140. - see M5 motorway.Pyrotec (talk) 20:07, 23 March 2009 (UTC)


 * I don't have any info on the A38 itself at present, but there was an economic depression after the end of WW I and I remember my father telling that the Government put money into road improvement schemes in the 1920s as a way of providing work for the unemployed - the conversation actually referred to what is now Wolverhampton New road (A4123). So, what is the start date of the Improvements section, 1920s, 1960s/70s when motorway construction was under way, or more recently? Just something to consider.Pyrotec (talk) 19:59, 23 March 2009 (UTC)
 * I feel without excessive digging for info, we may only be able to reference most improvements from the 1940s/50s onwards, but if we can dig out earlier info, that shouldn't stop us from including it if appropriate. IIRC a lot of work was carried out not long before the M5 came along in Worcestershire to straighten the road and widen to 3 lanes (the suicide lanes for those in the know). Worcestershire archives have a lot of images relating to this, but I haven't looked deep enough to find anything more than pictures yet. Jenuk1985  |  Talk  20:05, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

Notable Locations
I felt that something like this should be put up for discussion before just including in the article, I don't think its been done before on a roads related, but would a table of notable locations, with an image and coords be useful?

And so on and so on...

Obviously it should be a fairly limited list, I've only included examples above. I think I have seen a similar thing used on a River article, but I can't for the life of me remember where! Jenuk1985 |  Talk  19:39, 24 March 2009 (UTC)


 * Yes it could help bring the article up to GA-class. I've not see a table like this on a river article - the River Parrett has some coordinates in the infobox, but not a table as such; and both the River Parrett and the River Irwell are GAs.Pyrotec (talk) 19:52, 24 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Right, I'll copy this table over as a starting point, it can be added to as we go along. Jenuk1985  |  Talk  19:54, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Nice start, but...

I just added some proper formatting into the coord templates and a kml template which displays a nice box on the right side of the page with google maps link to all the coords listed. Having said that, the table is a duplicate of an existing Wikipedia POI table. Take a look at River Parrett and Glastonbury Canal for two different versions of the same table that I worked on a while back. The former uses a GB-derivative of the latter, displaying OSGB map reference as well as regular coords. I'm not a big fan of OSGB coords myself so I would suggest we use the form in the Glastonbury canal article. Using the table has the advantage of consistency and it takes care of all the twiddly bits in the coord template for you.--TimTay (talk) 21:28, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

b.t.w. My vote would be a definite no for images. Add them into the A38 category in Commons (see the link in the External Links section for existing photos) and add the odd image in the article itself. If you have an image on every row the table will be huge. If you don't have an image on every row the table will look very odd with rows of different heights. Therefore my preference is no images. --TimTay (talk) 21:31, 24 March 2009 (UTC)
 * Thanks for adding the kml tags, I had no idea that could be done! Can I suggest we try it with images to start with, if it does get overwhelming as we make progress then by all means remove them. There may be a case for making them slightly smaller, but not so small that they don't add anything. It may just be a case of experimenting as things evolve, I'll start adding some more points in a bit to bring it to a realistic length, then we can start playing with the design? Jenuk1985  |  Talk  21:38, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

Birmingham to Lichfield
I feel we need something about the by-passing of Sutton Coldfield (the old A38 is now, I believe, the A5127), but I'm not qualified to supply dates etc. Jan 1 naD  (talk • contrib) 16:12, 23 October 2009 (UTC)

Photo's out of date.
The photo of the junction with the M5 at Droitwich is out of date, as one of the two roundabouts has been turned into a signal-controlled semi-roundabout. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sslaxx (talk • contribs) 23:49, 7 January 2010 (UTC)

So Bristol International Airport is not on the map cited ?
Sorry, have reverted my query. Have just seen the article on Bristol Airport. Well done, Simple Bob, your edit stands. Dieter Simon (talk) 02:11, 25 March 2010 (UTC)

Longest A road in England?
is the A38 or the A6 the longest in england? I think it might be the A6 C. 22468 (talk) 10:01, 1 December 2010 (UTC)
 * I have qulified this statement. Unfortunately A6 road (England) does not give its length.  A1 must also be longer, but parts of it are now motorway and part of it is in Scotland.  Peterkingiron (talk) 16:34, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

Given that part of the route of the A38 is declassified in the centre of Bristol, does some clarification need to be made about the fact it's not the longest continuous (2 digit?) A road in the UK? Ccw34 (talk) 12:46, 10 July 2020 (UTC)

Devon Expressway
I propose that the Devon Expressway article be merged into A38 road. "Devon Expressway" is simply branding and only appears on a few signs at the start and end of the route, the route from Exeter to Plymouth was not even purpose built but was the result of joining several bypassed around towns. There is nothing different about this road to any other grade separated dual carriageway. I don't consider a separate article to be justified. ZoeL (talk) 20:52, 26 January 2011 (UTC)
 * Merge. As long as Devon Expressway and A38 refer to the same road, there is no need to have two articles on the same road. –Fredddie™ 06:19, 29 January 2011 (UTC)
 * Merge no point having two articles for same road. --Simple Boba.k.a. The Spaminator (Talk) 09:07, 29 January 2011 (UTC)
 * Merge Agree no point in having the two separate articles.&mdash; Rod talk 12:00, 5 February 2011 (UTC)
 * Merge Since they both share the same location, it is doubtful wether the Devon Expressway should have its own importance for its own article. Jaguar (talk) 17:30, 17 February 2011 (UTC)
 * Clear consensus therefore merge done - please check for any problems as the two pages described the route in opposite directions.&mdash; Rod talk 19:57, 17 February 2011 (UTC)

Never having seen any such signs on that section of the A38 myself, I am sceptical about the "Typical route confirmation sign seen on the Devon Expressway" image. (Even if they do exist – having been newly installed? – the shade of green used is much too light!) -- Picapica (talk) 09:40, 20 February 2013 (UTC)
 * Yes. It was news to me that my journeys from Bristol to Plymouth took me along the "Devon Expressway". Unless such signs actually exist, I don't think they should be illustrated. William Avery (talk) 11:54, 20 February 2013 (UTC)

Thanks for the confirmation that it wasn't just me (not) seeing things, William. Having now checked the image file on Wikimedia Commons I see that it was created in 2009, so I think this really is a case of an "invented" sign. I'll remove the illustration. -- Picapica (talk) 20:00, 20 February 2013 (UTC)


 * There's a 2004 Devon County Council document here that includes:


 * A sign has been erected at the southern end of the A39 in Cornwall promoting the A39 route as the Atlantic Highway. No signing of this nature extends into Devon at present along this route. However, precedent for route branding within the County of Devon exists along the A38 between Plymouth and Exeter which is signed as the Devon Expressway.


 * I'll be driving down there in a couple of weeks and see if I can spot any that still exist. Hybrid2712 (talk) 18:36, 21 February 2013 (UTC)

I've since come across one route confirmation sign headed Devon Expressway -- on the northbound carriageway after the Tamar Bridge crossing (see http://goo.gl/maps/pFwQc) -- but no evidence that this "branding" is repeated anywhere else. -- Picapica (talk) 10:55, 29 June 2013 (UTC)

A38 - minibus crash October 1962
I'm surprised that there is no mention of the very famous (at the time reportedly the worst road traffic accident in England) crash on the (then) three lane stretch between Berkeley Road and Slimbridge, Gloucestershire, on the evening of Thursday 18th October 1962 when a youth club minibus from Filton collided with an Express Carrier lorry travelling from Gloucester, both in the centre lane at the junction for Claypits next to the Mercury Café. 11 adults and young people in the minibus died either at the scene, or later at Gloucester Hospital. The news was so tragic (two families wiped out) that the Bristol Evening Post unusually ran a lunchtime edition on the Friday. My understanding is that this accident was important in that it led to a Ministerial Review of the use three lane, but single, carriageways in the UK. The A38 at this point has since been reduced from the three lanes that it was to single carriageway plus cycle lanes either side. Andywebby (talk) 13:53, 7 November 2012 (UTC)

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Major junction reduction
Hello fellow Wikipedians. BTW I have reduced the amount of major junctions on this page from 58 to 7 by narrowing it down to just motorways. Thank you. Roads4117 (talk) 17:12, 26 January 2023 (UTC)