A27 Arundel bypass

As the main road serving the south coast, the A27 is a crucial route through the south east. However, as it passes through Arundel it operates well over capacity and causes disruption and severe congestion. Highways England is therefore developing options for how the route could be improved.

Start date 2023-24

End date 2025-2030

Cost £320 million +

Latest updates

07 September 2021

Site surveys: What are we looking for and why is data gathering so important?

Our surveying teams are working to understand as much as possible about the site of the proposed bypass. With landowners’ permission, and working with the relevant local authorities and licensing bodies, our teams will be out and about on site over the next few weeks. You might notice them conducting this vital work, so we wanted to explain what data is being gathered and why it’s important, so please visit our 'Project Information' section below and scroll down to the 'survey's menu. There you can read about how we’re looking at archaeological deposits, trees, surface water and ecology and how all this will inform the detailed design of the road.
30 June 2021

What’s going on?

Highways England is carrying out surveys on land along the Grey route which we announced last year as the preferred route for the proposed bypass.

These surveys will give us a clear picture of the ground conditions along the route and we’ll get a good understanding of the type of soils, rocks and groundwater there. This information will help us design and build a safe bypass and will help us reduce the road’s impact on the environment and local community.

At the moment we’re surveying along the route from Crossbush to west of Walberton where the Arundel Road meets the A27 in Walberton.

We’re carrying out these surveys on plots of land where we have been given permission by the relevant landowner and all work has been agreed and authorised by the Environment Agency or local councils.

Our investigation work also complies with Section 61 of the Control of Pollution Act (1974), which places restrictions on noisy work.

What you’ll see

Some of our surveys involve drilling holes and we’ll be using monitoring devices to gauge water and gas levels.

Will local wildlife, plants or historical sites be disturbed by the work?

We’ve already carried out extensive environmental surveys, including bat, badger, reptile, bird and tree surveys. These environmental surveys will continue over the coming months in parallel with the ground investigation work you currently see.

The holes we need to make have been located to avoid environmentally sensitive locations, where possible. There will be ecologists, survey supervisors and archaeologists available during the work to make sure the impact of our work is kept to a minimum.

Who is doing this work?

A company called Arcadis are carrying out a lot of investigations on our behalf, along with a company called BAM Nuttall. You will only see staff from these organisations or from Highways England.

All personnel will be identifiable by their high visibility clothing.

How long will you be there?

We’re aiming to complete these surveys as soon as possible and with minimal disruption. We started them last year and they will be finished in the winter.

We apologise for any inconvenience that may be caused while they are being carried out.

Our proposed bypass will improve safety and reduce congestion in Arundel, which has caused the town problems for many years.
18 February 2021
Surveys and ground investigation along our preferred route

This month (February 2021) and until summer 2021 you’ll see our contractors doing ground investigation (GI) surveys on the land along the proposed route of the bypass. We need to find out more about the soils, rocks and groundwater along the route and this information will help us design the road in a way that seeks to minimise impact on the environment and local community as much as possible.

GI surveys are carried out using drilling rigs with crews of varying size dependant on the type of survey. We’ll be setting up temporary site compounds for the work, which we’re setting up during the course of the works.

There is the possibility of some night working on the road and on private land, depending on what we’ve agreed with each private landowner. The work we’re doing in February to summer 2021 is mainly on private land that has no public access, such as farmland.

Our ground investigation work is a continuation of the survey work we’ve been doing since April 2017 and which continues this year. That work includes:
- topographical surveys that started in September 2020 and will finish this month (February 2021);
- drainage and road surface surveys, which will both take place on the A27. There will be traffic management on the road for these and they’re taking place this spring;
- ecology surveys which will continue to run throughout the year;
- archaeological trial trenching which will take place along the preferred route later this year;
Our site surveyors will work in accordance with Covid-19 social distancing measures and latest government guidance.
15 October 2020
Our preferred route

We’ve chosen Grey (Option 5BV1) as our preferred route for the A27 Arundel bypass.

* Woodland north of A27 includes Dalesdown Wood, Danes Wood, Goblestubb's Copse, Madehurst Wood, Rewell Wood, Rough Copse, Screens Wood, Sherwood Rough, The Rough, The Waterwoods, West Stubbs Copse.

** Woodland south of A27 includes Ash Piece, Barn's Copse, Binstead Park, Binsted Wood, Brickklin Copse, Brickklin Piece, Fowler's Copse, Furzefield Copse, Hundredhouse Copse, Lake Copse, Little Dane's Wood, Paine's Wood, Pedler's Croft, Pinewoods, Singer's Piece, Spinningwheel Copse, Steward's Copse, The Shaw, Tortington Common, Wincher's Copse, Threecomer Wood.

Considerations

We have weighed up a range of considerations to identify our new preferred route.

These have included:
- How well the proposed designs would meet the scheme objectives
- Potential impacts on local communities and the environment around Arundel
- The extent to which the proposals would comply with planning policy
- Feedback received during our public consultation process
- The cost of delivering the scheme and the value-for-money that would be achieved by doing so
While there are no easy answers to the challenges of improving the A27 around Arundel, the results of our extensive assessment work have clearly identified Grey as the best long-term solution.

You’ll find more details about the proposed route in our Preferred Route Announcement brochure and in the Documents section below.

What happens next?

Now we have announced our preferred route, we will carry out extensive surveys and investigations to help us design the scheme in more detail.

These investigations will inform a landscape level assessment and support the development of mitigation measures to ensure the proposal is as sensitive to the environment and existing landscape as possible. As part of this process your views will be sought on the preliminary design and on the results of those further environmental assessments that we will have undertaken before we submit our application for a Development Consent Order.

This means you will have a further opportunity to shape the scheme as the detailed design develops.

We will work with key stakeholders, including local authorities and statutory environmental bodies over the coming months to ensure this consultation is suited to local needs, and we will publicise the details of the consultation and how you can take part, in due course.
01 October 2020

Ecological surveys

The A27 Arundel bypass scheme is currently carrying out ecological surveys to help identify habitats and species and understand how we manage our impacts on them.

These important surveys will form part of our environmental impact assessment and will help us as we develop our planning proposals.

Find out more about our survey work and our ecologists by watching our video:
02 March 2020

Next milestone for Arundel scheme

The next milestone for the A27 Arundel scheme will be when we make our preferred route announcement this autumn. The full consultation report will be made available when we make this announcement.
31 January 2020

Further review period for consultation

The 2019 options consultation on proposals to improve the A27 at Arundel ran from 30 August until midnight on 24 October 2019. We’d like to thank everyone who took the time to provide feedback.

As part of our work to collate and review the responses to the consultation, we identified some issues around the way certain pieces of information were presented. Following this, we undertook further reviews of the published documents and have identified some errors. As a result, we are holding a further review period from 3 February until 11.59pm on 1 March 2020.
29 January 2020
Elected Representatives' Forum

The Elected Representatives’ Forum provides a way for Highways England to engage with communities local to the A27 Arundel Bypass scheme. The forum will help local communities, via their elected representatives, to find accurate, up-to-date information about the scheme, through the consultation and planning stages and what they can expect – for example, emerging evidence and design options. It is also a way for the local communities to understand what the scheme means for them and how it will progress over the years.

The Forum most recently met in September 2019. You can find out what was discussed in this meeting below. All other minutes are held in the 'Elected Representatives Forum' section below.
- Minutes from September's meeting
If you have any questions or would like to get in touch with the A27 Arundel Bypass project team, please email: a27arundelbypass@highwaysengland.co.uk.

See more updates

Project information

By making changes to the A27 at Arundel we’re aiming to:

Improve safety
Increase the capacity of the road
Reduce congestion and travel time
Have as little impact as possible on the environment
Protect and enhance the quality of the surrounding environment through high quality design
Respect the South Downs National Park and its special qualities in our decision-making

We need this scheme because the A27 through Arundel causes a daily build up of traffic that costs commuters, businesses, communities and visitors valuable time and money. In fact, the congestions costs businesses millions of pounds a year. The road also cuts off communities and makes every day trips longer and more difficult.

Further review period - 3 February to 1 March 2020

Further options consultation - 30 August to 24 October 2019

Options consultation - July to October 2017

Our surveying teams are working to gather as much information as possible about the site of the proposed A27 Arundel bypass. With landowners’ permission, and working with the relevant local authorities and licensing bodies, our teams will be out and about on site carrying out surveys. You might notice them conducting this vital work, so we’re taking a closer look below to explain what data is being gathered and why it’s so important for our design team.

Archaeological trial trenching

We’re about to begin archaeological investigations, which means we’ll be looking for - and recording - any archaeological findings. You may see some of our archaeology team starting the surveys in September and continuing over the coming months. Whether it’s prehistoric animal bones, stone-age hand tools, medieval farm equipment or Victorian military remains, we’ll carefully record everything we find and produce a report for the public record.

We are working with the archaeology team at West Sussex County Council to plan this work. The results of these surveys will provide our road design team with valuable evidence about the archaeology of the site, allowing us to make sure we’re minimising the impact of the road design on any historical remains we find. We expect most of this archaeology work to take place on weekdays.

Tree surveys

Our Arboricultural team of tree specialists look at the areas on site where existing trees might be affected during the construction of the proposed road. They visit the site and examine the trees, recording information about their location, size, condition, quality and species. Our tree specialists work in small teams and their surveys are not invasive. The tree survey data will be used to inform the design team about trees on site, including their required canopy and root protection zones. Although the proposed route of the road does not pass through any ancient woodland at all, there are still many significant trees on the site and the Arboricultural survey will help us to understand how we can design the road to have the smallest possible impact on existing trees in the area and also where would be the best areas to plant new trees.

Water surveys

Our water survey team are working to gather as much information as possible about surface water conditions at the site of the proposed road – like the condition of rivers and streams, and information about flood plains. This ‘baseline data’ will be gathered by small teams of water surveyors over the coming weeks. You might notice people with bottles gathering water samples from specific points in the streams and rivers on site. This is to make sure we understand as much as possible about the current water quality so that our design team can put in place the best type of drainage measures to protect it as they develop plans for the road. You might also see people using a hand-held ‘flow meter’ – a device that tells us how fast the water is moving along a water course. All these observations are repeated at different times of year to make sure seasonal changes are taken into account.

Ecological surveys

Our ecology team work around the clock to gather information about the ecology of the site. This includes information about the wildlife habitats as well as individual species, and they’ll be looking on land, in the watercourses, and up in the air! Ecologists will be on site most weeks, looking for different things depending on the season and the weather conditions. Surveys are ongoing to look for evidence of animals like bats, great crested newts, otters and water voles – protected species that, if discovered, will be carefully considered as we continue designing the road. This might mean for example avoiding valuable habitat where possible, creating new habitats and planning for the careful relocation of animals.

Due to the nature of the work, our ecology teams might be on site at all times of the day and night. Bat surveying, for example, needs to happen at dusk and into the evening to observe bats entering and leaving their roosts.

The information gathered by the ecologists is vital for the design team, enabling them to make informed decisions about areas of valuable habitat on site and also letting them know where extra habitat might need to be created. You can find out more about the work of the ecology team by watching our video from earlier in the project.