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The A2 is a major road in southern England, connecting London with the English Channel port of Dover in Kent. This route has always been of importance as a connection between the British capital of London and sea trade routes to Continental Europe. It was formerly known as the Dover Road.〔''The Illustrated Road Book of England and Wales'' (1961). The Automobile Association: 32〕 Unlike the other single digit A-roads in Great Britain, the A2 does not form a zone boundary (in this case between Zone 1 and Zone 2). The Zone 1/2 boundary is the River Thames. ==History of the route== The route of the current A2 follows a similar route to that of a Celtic ancient trackway. It was an important route for the Romans linking London with Canterbury and the three Channel ports of Rutupiae (now Richborough), Dubris (now Dover) and Portus Lemanis (in modern Lympne). It had river crossings at Rochester over the River Medway; Dartford (River Darent) and Crayford (River Cray). The Romans paved the road and constructed the first Rochester Bridge across the Medway. Access to London was via London Bridge which was first constructed by the Romans in AD 50. The road was known as 'Item a Londinio ad portum Dubris' and appeared in the Antonine Itinerary, a contemporary map of Roman roads in Britain. In Anglo-Saxon times it became part of a longer road known as Wæcelinga Stræt ('Watling Street' in modern English). Rochester Bridge was rebuilt in stone in 1391 and the 'Wardens and Commonalty of Rochester Bridge' were created to maintain the bridge, the modern equivalent of which, the Rochester Bridge Trust, still manages the current crossing. By the 17th century the road had fallen into disrepair and sections were converted into turnpike roads by various Turnpike Acts passed by Parliament. The section from Gravesend and Rochester was turnpiked in 1712 and then from Chatham to Canterbury in 1730; the section from there to Dover was only turnpiked in the 19th century by which time it was known as the Great Dover Road. Rochester Bridge was rebuilt in cast iron in 1856 (and rebuilt again in 1914 with a second bridge in 1970). The London, Chatham and Dover Railway completed a railway route from London to Dover in the 1860s. Access to London from the A2 across Thames was improved with the completion of Tower Bridge (1894), Blackwall Tunnel (1897) and the Rotherhithe Tunnel (1908). The road was given the reference A2 within the Great Britain road numbering scheme in the 1920s. The Dartford Southern By-pass, which relieved chronic congestion on the old route through Dartford (along what is now the A207) provided considerable local employment during the Post–World War I recession. It as opened by the Prince of Wales in 1924. It is estimated that the project provided 63,500 days work to local unemployed people.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Roads and road building )〕 The Dartford Crossing opened as a single tunnel in 1963 (then as a dual tunnel in 1980) and provided additional traffic on the A2 and the M2 Motorway opened in stages between 1963 and 1965 providing an alternative faster route for long-distance traffic avoiding the A2 through Rochester and Chatham. The 3-lane stretch of the A2 between Falconwood and Cobham was built in stages from around 1963 until 1973. A section of Ringway 3 (part of the proposed M16 motorway linking to the A2, which later formed part of the M25 motorway opened between 1974 and 1977. The Rochester Way Relief Road, was opened in 1988. The M20 motorway to Folkestone was constructed in stages from the 1960s and provided a faster route to Dover following extensions built in the in early 1990s after which traffic levels on the M2 and A2 reduced. The Queen Elizabeth II Bridge opened in 1991. A new flyover for A2 Westbound to M25 Northbound traffic was completed late 2007. In 2008, a section of the A2 beside Gravesend was widened to 3/4 lanes between Pepperhill (suburb of Northfleet) to Cobham. It was also re-routed away from the houses of Gravesend/Singlewell to make room for the new lanes and reduce the amount of noise from the widened roads. The old route of the A2 (the Roman road) has been made into a footpath/cyclepath. The new road was opened in 2009.〔http://www.skanska.co.uk/Global/About%20Skanska/Sustainability/March%202010/A2,%20UK%20Sustainability%20Case%20Study.pdf〕〔http://www.open-road.org.uk/news.php〕 A section of the old road has been turned into Cyclopark, with footpaths, cyclepaths and an equestrian route along the old road. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「A2 road (Great Britain)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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