A444 road

A444
The A444 in Coventry showing the Heath Road bridge
Route information
Length	32 mi (51 km)
Major junctions
South end	Coventry
Major intersections	A4600 A428 M6 A47 A5 M42 A42 A514 A5189 A511
North end	Burton upon Trent
Location
Country	United Kingdom
Primary destinations	Coventry Bedworth Nuneaton Twycross Appleby Magna Measham Swadlincote Burton-upon-Trent
Road network
Roads in the United Kingdom Motorways A and B road zones
←A443 →A445

TheA444is a primary road running betweenCoventryandBurton upon Trentin England, usually referred to as the "A treble four" or "A triple four".

Route

Coventry to A5

Starting at the junction of theA45andA46at Festival Island west ofBagintonjust south ofCoventry,the road runs as a dual-carriageway one mile north to the Whitley junction. Here there is a break in the road and it starts again at the roundabout where theA428Sky Blue Way/Binley Road and the B4110 Humber Road meet inGosford Greenjust east of Coventry. From there it heads north as a dual-carriageway road, crossing theM6at junction 3. It bypassesBedworthto the west and heads intoNuneatonpassing theGeorge Eliot Hospital.The road continues into Nuneaton town centre and is notoriously bad for traffic during busy periods. The road then heads away from Nuneaton, throughWeddingtonand crossing theA5Watling Street.

A5 to Burton upon Trent

Becoming a rural single-carriageway road passing throughLeicestershirecountryside, it passes near to the outskirts of the village ofFenny Draytonand crosses farmland of nearbyLindley Hall Farm,thegeographical centre of England(according to theOrdnance Survey). The road also passes near the site of theBattle of Bosworth.It meets the end of theM42(and therefore the start of theA42) inAppleby Magnawhere it entersSouth Derbyshire,throughCastle Gresleywhere it meets theA514,eventually descending intoBurton upon Trentto connect with theA5189to finally terminate on theA511.

Improvements

Between the late 1980s and mid-1990s, a dual-carriageway road was constructed in phases connecting Coventry, Sky Blue Way and Nuneaton to provide a more direct link betweenCoventrycity centre and theM6 motorway.The town ofBedworthhad already been by-passed during the 1970s and this followed a continuation of this route, the first phase opening in 1990 and the second in 1995.

This section of road is now known asJimmy HillWay (formerly Phoenix Way)and was constructed along the course of a disused railway line. The former route of the A444 was then reclassified as part of theB4113.Initially, there were plans to create a north−south link road through Coventry, extending Phoenix Way south past its current terminus roundabout, as there is a section of dual carriageway that continues as the A46, numbered as the A444 to the south of the city, but such plans were dropped during the construction of the Coventry to Nuneaton section.

InCastle Gresley,a bypass was built to allow traffic to go around the village, without having to go down Mount Pleasant Road (which was previously part of the A444, where the old road previously ran can be obviously seen from a nearby roundabout). This part of the A444 is national speed limit (the closest part toBurton upon Trentwhich is), with a crawler lane on the uphill side.

In 2020/2021, work has been completed on theM42/A42J11 exit (where the A444 meets), adding traffic lights to the roundabout, as well as work completed on the A444 towardsBurton upon Trent,where the speed limit for part of the road has been reduced to 50 mph. This is to make way for a new development known as Mercia Park, which is set to be used byJaguar Land Rover.

Former routes

• Between Coventry and Nuneaton, the A444 used to follow what is now theB4113 road.
• The A444 used to run between Coventry and Leamington Spa following the B4113. There is still a road sign on the B4113 indicating this.

Gallery

• 
  The bridge for (the A444) Phoenix Way over Walsgrave Road, Gosford Green
• 
  Phoenix Way/Foleshill Road traffic island
• 
  The southern termination of Phoenix Way