A1(M) Leeming - Barton

[unterwasser]

Little piece on the local news about the overnight works http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... a-04022016 About 14 minutes in. Be quick, it goes tomorrow!

[wrinkly]

The same item was also on Look North (Yorkshire) at lunchtime and I imagine it (or a longer version) was on the teatime edition.

[Mikeg]

The new hard shoulder and lane 1 southbound from Barton to Scotch Corner was open this morning

[wrinkly]

Presumably now they'll put a contraflow on the southbound so that they can work on the northbound. According to the original programme, this contraflow should have been in place by early October last year.

[Repmobile]

The steel beams are all in place for the LAR bridge between Leeming Bar and Catterick but you can see sky between them - there's no formwork for the deck yet.

I had a drive along the A1 yesterday on my way home. There is now a crane at the new overbridge north of J51 (Leeming Bar) which was starting to lift the concrete infill sections between the beams so there is now progress on this bridge after a few months of not much visibly happening.

[Sam]

Does anybody know if there's any intention to open Scotch Corner - Barton ahead of the rest of the scheme? (I'm thinking how J49-J50 was opened earlier.) It seems that the section will be substantially complete and, being at one end, is presumably safer to derestrict sooner.

[a_c_skinner]

On the question of Scotch to Barton is there a reason why this is being upgraded to 3 lanes but Barton to A66(M) remains 2 lanes? To my foolish thinking this isn't rational. The two big traffic flows are on and off the A66 and hardly anything leaves or joins at Barton. Looking today three lanes from Barton to A66(M) looks easy if one tolerates the now widespread discontinuous hard shoulder.

[c2R]

On the question of Scotch to Barton is there a reason why this is being upgraded to 3 lanes but Barton to A66(M) remains 2 lanes? To my foolish thinking this isn't rational. The two big traffic flows are on and off the A66 and hardly anything leaves or joins at Barton. Looking today three lanes from Barton to A66(M) looks easy if one tolerates the now widespread discontinuous hard shoulder.

I would have thought that they'll wait and see what happens to A1(M) traffic flows - it depends how much diverts from other routes to use the A1/A66 to head to the NW and Scotland, and how much additional flow is created on the older A1(M) stretch - I would think that the whole old section will be considered together with regard to traffic patterns and potential managed motorway or upgrades.

[wrinkly]

I suspect the main point where flows reduce is at Scotch Corner, but the upgrade was pushed the extra couple of miles to Barton so as not to leave a short non-motorway section between two motorways. And then once that section was included, they thought they might as well make it 3 lanes so they wouldn't have to come back to it.

Whenever I've been on the A66(M) it has had next to no traffic.

[Haydn1971]

On the question of Scotch to Barton is there a reason why this is being upgraded to 3 lanes but Barton to A66(M) remains 2 lanes?

Weaving distance... Or lack of... Scotch Corner to Barton won't be 3 lanes, it will be 2 lanes with a parallel merge/diverge lane.

[wrinkly]

Though until fairly recently the proposed northbound layout was to drop the left lane to the A66, pick it up again afterwards, then drop a lane on the right just after the Barton exit.

[ais523]

The DMRB has a strong recommendation that if you lane drop to a junction and lane gain afterwards, that an extra lane of width is provided through the junction (as a hard shoulder, hatched out area, etc.) so that if the exit slip road has to be closed for some reason, you have somewhere to route the dropped lane (and thus don't have to close a lane to compensate). Presumably this came out of experience trying to do roadworks on lane-drop junctions.

[a_c_skinner]

"Scotch Corner to Barton won't be 3 lanes, it will be 2 lanes with a parallel merge/diverge lane."

That makes some sense, though with little traffic seeming to leave at Barton I cannot go beyond "some".

The A66(M) isn't the M25, but there is a decent amount of traffic.

Andrew

[Stevie D]

On the question of Scotch to Barton is there a reason why this is being upgraded to 3 lanes but Barton to A66(M) remains 2 lanes? To my foolish thinking this isn't rational. The two big traffic flows are on and off the A66 and hardly anything leaves or joins at Barton. Looking today three lanes from Barton to A66(M) looks easy if one tolerates the now widespread discontinuous hard shoulder.

If a lot of heavy traffic is joining the A1(M) northbound at Scotch Corner then the 1 mile of 3-lane will give that traffic extra time to merge and join the mainline, which should make for a safer and smoother transition with less disruption to flow on the mainline. Southbound between Barton and Scotch Corner, there is no need for that – even with the truckstop at Barton, very little heavy traffic joins there and so you haven't got a huge volume of merging traffic to accommodate. Diverging traffic causes far less disruption at a typical junction like this, so there is no need for an extra lane on the mainline to separate off diverging traffic early.

[Mikeg]

New hard shoulder and lane 1 open northbound where the old exit slip was at Catterick North tonight

[Repmobile]

New hard shoulder and lane 1 open northbound where the old exit slip was at Catterick North tonight

Hi Mike,

Yes I noticed that today. It forms the alignment of what will eventually become the Local Access Road (basically the current northbound carriageway between Catterick North Junction and just north of the Shell Garage at High Brough Moor).

My local Parish Council (Catterick) are asking Highways England to retain the 'temporary' off slip at Catterick North Southbound (it closed temporarily to change alignment and is again open but only temporarily). Keeping it would save traffic heading to the Gatherley Road Industrial Estate, Brompton on Swale and the B6271 from having to travel down to the new junction and then back up again. Plus if there is a need to close the Southbound mainline due to an accident etc in the vicinity of, or north of Catterick Central, then it would be easier to take the southbound traffic off at Catterick North. Otherwise it means taking southbound traffic off at Scotch Corner where it will have to go around the junction to pick up the A6108 and then negotiate a second roundabout to get onto the LAR proper.

When, at short notice in the past they have taken southbound traffic off at Scotch to divert via the A6108 (and ultimately through Richmond and Catterick Garrison!), it has lead to tailbacks northbound on the A1 at Scotch as traffic on the northbound off slip cannot get through the lights at the top of the slip road due to the volume of traffic using the junction.

Of course a 'free flow' junction from the A1 north onto the A66 West would negate this problem, but no doubt it was too expensive to incorporate into the upgrade.

How successful the Parish Council will be I wouldn't like to say, but no chance springs to mind. If it does happen then at least there are plenty of spare junction numbers to give to Catterick North though!!

[Chris5156]

My local Parish Council (Catterick) are asking Highways England to retain the 'temporary' off slip at Catterick North Southbound (it closed temporarily to change alignment and is again open but only temporarily). Keeping it would save traffic heading to the Gatherley Road Industrial Estate, Brompton on Swale and the B6271 from having to travel down to the new junction and then back up again. Plus if there is a need to close the Southbound mainline due to an accident etc in the vicinity of, or north of Catterick Central, then it would be easier to take the southbound traffic off at Catterick North. Otherwise it means taking southbound traffic off at Scotch Corner where it will have to go around the junction to pick up the A6108 and then negotiate a second roundabout to get onto the LAR proper.

...

How successful the Parish Council will be I wouldn't like to say, but no chance springs to mind. If it does happen then at least there are plenty of spare junction numbers to give to Catterick North though!!

I expect HE's response will be that this motorway scheme was in planning for many years and the parish council were consulted and given ample opportunity to put forward ideas. The time to suggest new junctions is not while the motorway is under construction.

In any case this would be serving a very local requirement which is not in keeping with a trunk road motorway, and I expect HE would have said a firm "no" regardless of what stage of the process it was proposed.

[wrinkly]

New hard shoulder and lane 1 open northbound where the old exit slip was at Catterick North tonight

Yes I noticed that today. It forms the alignment of what will eventually become the Local Access Road (basically the current northbound carriageway between Catterick North Junction and just north of the Shell Garage at High Brough Moor).

I think what you're referring to there is the bit of road that I referred to in my posts of Oct 10 on page 35 and Jan 31 (the first of my two of that date, timed 18:25) on page 39. Whereas I think Mike is referring to part of the main carriageway immediately each side of the Catterick North bridge.

How successful the Parish Council will be I wouldn't like to say, but no chance springs to mind.

The same thought occurred to me.

[wrinkly]

I was there this afternoon and noticed a few points.

The traffic lights have gone again from the top of the closed northbound off slip at Catterick South. Still no tie-in works there with the road over the new bridge.

Tie-in works are in progress between the A6108 and the roundabout where it will meet the LAR. Some time very soon, southbound traffic will be diverted round the roundabout.

There is not yet a contraflow on the now-widened southbound main carriageway between Barton and Scotch Corner. It's not clear whether one is still proposed. It may just be waiting for completion of a bit of road near the start of the southbound off slip at SC.

No beams yet on the bridge that will take the LAR over the A1 north of Scotch Corner, but the LAR north-east from the bridge is nearly finished, while to the SW of the bridge there's a lot still to be done.

[Mikeg]

Today northbound passed Fort bridge, I found myself on lanes 2 and 3 of the new southbound carriageway. When did that happen!