While the motorway had taken a lot of long-distance traffic out of Fareham, the historic High Street and Wallington village both continued to be choked by traffic, with Wallington Bridge between the two being a particular bottleneck.
If Fareham Shopping Centre was to continue to grow and the vogue for new industrial estates and business parks was to be realised, changes would be needed.
Fareham Borough Council introduced "Wallington Link Road" to the public in 1979. They called it "part of Fareham town centre ring road system". The new road opened in 1981, and runs mostly along the floodplain between Fareham and Wallington.
It started at the Delme Roundabout where a gap had been reserved for it when the roundabout was built in 1971. That project saw the River Wallington diverted into a new channel that went straight through the roundabout, leaving a dead-end where the river used to meander around the marshes. The new road would cut across this, leaving a floodplain on the west side, where a tiny section of the original course of the river can still be made out. A bund runs along the east side of the road to protect it from the regular flooding; the west side is protected because the water can now only get there through a small tunnel.
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Looking across the river in 1979, before Wallington Way was built. The Roundabout Hotel and river bridge can just be made out on the right, with the houses of Wallington in the distance
The higher ground at the back of Lysees, once sports fields, nursery and allotment gardens, became a long stay car park. The road continues along the floodplains and low ground, breaking up Wallington Hill, before a roundabout with Broadcut, the access road to Fareham Industrial Park that was previously unsuitably accessed from the hill.
All that remained was for it to climb the hill and meet the old road. It did this by cutting across former playing fields and the Old Manor Gardens caravan site. The caravan site was then moved to a clearing north of the road on a different part of the old Wallington Hill manor garden, land which was later snapped up by Sainsbury's. The A32 then meets Wickham Road at another small roundabout.
The road opened as a primary route but was downgraded shortly afterwards. It took the destinations "Alton" and "Wickham", that had previously been directed onto the motorway.