A59: Liverpool - York

Another great northern road, and another Lancashire-Yorkshire affair. It starts right in the centre of Liverpool near the Wallasey tunnel entrance, and heads due north as a dual carriageway. The section from here up to the A59/M57/M58 interchange (known as "Switch Island" for some reason) is the only bit of the A59 I've never been on - I know the rest of it like the back of my hand fortunately! I believe it heads out of the city as single carriageway, but mostly 4 lanes, passes Aintree racecourse, and then hits Switch Island.

This is a legendary cock-up of a junction, and I think it has been commented on previously, but isn't (yet) on Chris's list of bad junctions. It makes the M6/M1/A14 look like a shining example of good junction design! The problem is that two motorways end here, the A59 is a significant route heading north/south, and then the northern 'sort-of' ring road round Liverpool and to Bootle docks joins in the party too. Hence a five-way meeting, although interestingly, the two m/ways probably carry the least traffic. One big roundabout, with the A59 perhaps on a flyover, would have been sensible, but we end up with an hybrid half roundabout/traffic light mess, with slip roads veering off here there and everywhere.

I suspect part of the problem was that the A59 north of here was due to be bypassed by the now-scrapped M59, which would have run along the first bit of the M58, before heading off north towards Ormskirk and Preston - hence the effort in channelling traffic from the A59 onto the M58. Plans are afoot to "upgrade" the junction, but I don't see how other than starting from scratch.

Anyway, between Switch Island and Ormskirk, the A59 is a good dual carriageway, and a trunk route, with a few traffic lights, but generally flowing well. At Ormskirk, the A59 reverts to single-carriageway, on a very old bypass (probably 1920s/30s - the old Lancs County Council had a very enlightened and pioneering view of roadbuiling), although the effect has been negated by building houses, shops etc along its length. With the M59 project long-since scrapped, a more conventional A59/A570 bypass is planned, but may never happen.

North of Ormskirk the A59 is a reasonably good, albeit busy road passing through little towns like Burscough, and villages like Rufford, before the traffic light controlled crossroads at Tarleton, where the A565 from Southport joins - can be a bit of a bottleneck in summer. A dangerous three lane section from here has now been two-laned, and before long we hit the Hutton bypass, a good dual carriageway, probably from the 1960s - one of those roads with wide verges containing separate footpaths and cycleways - so much better than simply painting a foot-wide strip down the side of the existing carriageway. There was a dangerous crossroads on this stretch, just after a railway bridge, which led to poor visability - rather than shutting off the junction, they built a totally pointless roundabout instead, which slows things up a bit.

We pass Lancashire Police HQ, and rejoin the old road for the slog into Preston via Penwortham. A single-carriageway bypass was long- planned (it would have actually bypassed part of the existing dual-carriageway Hutton bypass for good measure!), but must have been scrapped. The top end of the bypass was actually built - the A582 now feeds into this, and takes the number.

After Hutton, the old road has been dualled, but now with a 40 limit, before reverting to single through the centre of Penwortham village. Down the hill towards the River Ribble, we meet the A582 which flies-over the A59. Had the full bypass been built, this would have been the A59 on the flyover - so now, we have to head up the slip road where a relief road takes us over the Ribble and onto Ringway, the original Preston inner-ring road (1960s I guess). If you're heading towards Liverpool, you turn off after the flyover to a roundabout, where you then double back, alongside the flyover and to traffic lights at the bridge. This is all a bit of a mess...

Ringway enables us to avoid the worst of Preston centre (god knows what it must have been like here pre-M6 - the A6/A59/A583 to Blackpool all converging in a busy town centre), before we turn left onto Ribbleton Lane, and pick up the A59 numbering again. This takes us down to the M6 at Samlesbury, J31 (site of that film clip I remember with the wonky signs). The original junction had 'trumpet-style' slip roads, all south of the A59 - at the other side of the A59 is the Ribble, so a conventional set up would have needed 3 bridges over the river (J34 A683 was built on the same principle). When the M6 was rebuilt 10 years ago, a more conventional junction resulted, so the two slip roads (plus an access road to a gravel pit on the other side of the river) have their own bridges.

After the M6, the A59 heads for Blackburn and Clitheroe on a dualled section (eastbound along the original carriageway, and up a fairly steep hill, westbound running on a new road alongside, on an embankment, and therefore more gradual than the westbound bit) - this was probably built in the late 50s to tie-in with the motorway. At the top of the hill, the A59 veers left, and runs around the perimeter of Samlesbury Aerodrome (British Aerospace). I think this section was built at the same time as the aerodrome, and the original A59 veered left off the A677 after Samlesbury Hall, the airfield now on top of this route. This would explain why the A59 heads away from the A677 at Samlesbury, but almost rejoins it at Mellor Brook (less than half a mile from the A677).

After Mellor, the A59 is pretty much unimproved and is a bit of a drag as far as Langho where it meets the A666 and the Whalley bypass starts. This must have been intended as a dual carriageway - the roundabout with the A666 is massive, and on a whopping embankment, so the A59 was obviously intended to pass underneath as a dual carriageway. The entire bypass has wide cuttings and embankments, and the bridges are wide enough to accomodate. It has "two-way traffic" signs all along it, such is the appearance of this being a dualled stretch. The section between the two bits of the A671 has just been dualled (not really sure why), but the next bypass section (Clitheroe) is single, and has some dangerous crossroads. After Chatburn, we revert to the original route, and prior to 1974, would now be in Yorkshire (on the ancient boundaries, the Tykes took a huge bite out of Lancs here, even though we are clearly well to the west of the Pennine chain). A short blast up Sawley Hill was improved a number of years ago with a new three lane section. We pass through Gisburn village (for hundreds of years it was spelt 'Gisburne' until the railway came along and some dim employee missed the "e" off on the station sign), and a short improved section near Horton where a narrow twisty stretch was 'ironed out'. Officially now in Yorkshire, we pass the double-arched bridge over the canal at East Marton (they built a new road bridge on top of the existing hump-backed bridge - looks a bit odd) A nice new roundabout was built a couple of years ago to improve the A56 junction at Broughton, and then it's only a couple of miles to the god-send that is the Skipton bypass (see my A65 posting). The A59/A65 multiplex round the town, partly on the original A59.

From here, the A59 loses its trunk road status for the first time, and until about 15 years ago, this was only a secondary route - and it shows. Although this is one of the best bits of road in England, it is a bit 'up and down', twisty, and narrow in several sections. A short bypass was built at Bolton Bridge about 10 years ago, and the long, long drag up Beamsley Hill was straightened out and widened to three lanes many years ago (before my time I think). This is now an excellent, and fun, bit of road - you can easily do 80 up the middle lane overtaking Sunday drivers without thinking about it. At the summit, the road deteriorates, and it's then a long, narrow descent, on the edge of a huge ravine, down to the wonderfully named village of Blubberhouses.

We then 'rollercoast' along, past the 'golf balls' at the "RAF base" at Menwith Hill (this is a misnomer - it is nothing to do with the RAF, but is actually a US listening station, manned entirely by Yanks, and you often see American cars whizzing round there carrying military types in dark sunglasses. Mark Thomas, late night Channel 4 lefty, did a very amusing stunt there a couple of years ago, when he "accidently" flew an hot air balloon over the base to spy on them). We then drop down to Harrogate and meet the A61. The A59 continues through the suburbs of the town, avoiding the centre, then heads east to Knaresborough - picturesque little tourist town, and scene of many bank holiday daytrips when I was a lad. This is unofficially bypassed by the A658 Harrogate bypass (it's quicker to leave the A59 in Harrogate, join the A661, then use the A658 to pick up the A59 again east of K'boro).

The A59 speeds quickly along to the A1(M), then on to Green Hammerton, now bypassed. Originally it ended here, with the old A66 coming down from Boroughbridge and doing the last stretch into York. Now the A59 finishes the job, and ends just to the west of the city walls on the A1036, the old A64.

bobsykes