North Orbital Road
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Markedly different from any other section of the various orbital road proposals, the northern side of Ringway 4 is a different and slightly peculiar route. While the rest of the four Ringways seem to have been planned as three and four lane motorways, this section of road through Hertfordshire and Essex is a much smaller and quieter affair. It seems to have been planned as an all-purpose dual carriageway, not a motorway, and might not have been grade-separated all the way through - though for the most part it would have been a fast road with little to slow down the passage of motorists.
Large parts of it would also be recycled from existing roads, with some of it seeming to hijack sections of the A414 North Orbital Road, and in two places it looks like it would have borrowed sections of other radial routes to make its orbital journey. All in all, it would hardly have been the huge, uninterrupted orbital motorway planned for the rest of the Ringways plan.
The reasons that this might have been so are not clear. The most obvious clue is the north side of Ringway 3, running a little way to the south. Because the urban sprawl of London is quite uneven but each Ringway was planned at a roughly consistent distance from the central area, the north side of Ringway 3 runs out in open countryside while its other three sides are argubly more built-up. It follows that the north side of Ringway 3 might not have needed relief on quite the same scale as elsewhere, leaving Ringway 4's north side as little more than a regional artery for a series of medium and large sized Hertfordshire towns.
R3 Eastern Section
Possible connection to M11
Possible connections to Nazeing & Harlow
A1170 Hoddesdon town centre
A10
Possible connections to Hertford & Hatfield
A1(M)
Possible connections to St Albans & London Colney
Possible connection to M10 (towards M1)
M1
A41(M) (leading to R4 Western Section)
The Route
Following the route from east to west, Ringway 4 was to have a strange start point, branching off Ringway 3 in the vicinity of Navestock in Essex, about halfway between the M11 and A12 junctions on the present-day M25. It would then head away to pass through North Weald Bassett and cross the M11 north of Coppersale Common. At the interchange between Ringway 3 and M11, sliproads would be provided to duplicate this route, which is strange as Ringway 4 is far more direct. The only conceivable reasons for this are that Ringway 4 would be slower than the motorway route, perhaps because of a series of at-grade junctions, but this seems unlikely as there are no settlements of any considerable size along this short section of proposed road. The other possibility is that Ringway 4 would not have interchanged with the M11 at all, which also seems rather a strange idea.
The route, shown on a peculiar Dunlop "width of road" map. Click to enlarge
From the M11, the route would turn to head directly west for a short time before turning north-west again to pass close to Nazeing before reaching Hoddesdon. A small part of Ringway 4 was built at Hoddesdon - known as the A1170 Dinant Link Road, it is a short section of two-lane dual carriageway connecting the A10 bypass to the town centre. It seems too big for its location and its terminus on the A10 leaves plenty of room for a flyover to continue the road westward.
Beyond Hoddesdon, Ringway 4's line is hard to find and so far has only turned up in one map. As a result there is very little detail on the route beyond its general alignment. The map makes clear that it would have run west from Hoddesdon, coming close to the northern edge of Little Berkhamsted before turning north-west and joining the line of the A414 to the north of Hatfield. This is probably closely related to (if not actually the same thing as) the long-proposed Hertford Southern Bypass. Presumably orbital traffic wishing to remain on Ringway 4 would use a section of the A1 or A1(M) to continue its journey on the A414.
How closely the road would follow the A414 and A405 North Orbital is not precisely known, but again a 'best guess' suggests it would follow the existing alignment to interchange with the M10 at Park Street, then turn south-west to meet the M1 at junction 6 before passing through the northern suburbs of Watford to terminate on the A41(M). If road plans in this area had gone ahead, this motorway-to-motorway interchange would probably be at the site of the A405/A41 junction, which is already a grade separated interchange.
Traffic wanting to continue around London on Ringway 4 would then join the A41(M) westbound, bypassing Watford to the north, to arrive at Hunton Bridge roundabout and the start of the Western Section. Without accurate plans it is impossible to verify that this strange state of affairs is what planners had in mind. At present, though, the evidence suggests that there would have been an odd gap in Ringway 4 where traffic would have used a separate radial route for about 1km (0.6 miles).
The A1170 Dinant Link Road, approaching the A10: a template for the North Orbital?
The name or classification of this northern section is not known. Judging by the only piece of evidence available - the Hoddesdon Link Road - it would probably have been a high quality, grade-separated all purpose road, with two or three lanes in each direction, probably inheriting the number A414.
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