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

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