A610

The A610 is an important medium-length A-road in the East Midlands that connects Nottingham to various towns in its hinterland to the north-west and the A6, picking up traffic from the M1 heading to the Peak District along the way.

Route

Nottingham – Nuthall

Derby Road, Nottingham

The road starts at a roundabout in Nottingham City Centre with the inner ring road, the A6008. This was formerly the A52 when it passed through the centre, and is a one-way system up the hill to Canning Circus, where the A6200 (ex-A52), A609 and A610 radiate in a clockwise manner. The road passes through Radford before meeting the ring road, the A6514, at a signalled junction which was formerly a roundabout.

Now primary, the route continues to pass through the outskirts of Nottingham where it crosses the B6004 at a signalled junction and the B6008 at a roundabout. This section is 30 mph, enforced rigidly by SPECS. After the roundabout the route is dual carriageway and NSL, but for the subsequent dual carriageway being 40, the traffic rarely travels much faster than 40. The next roundabout, which is large and signalled, is with the B600 (here the old route of the A610, and erstwhile A613), and A6002. A short distance of dual carriageway, now with a 40 limit, brings up M1 junction 26; this section was a spur leading purely to the motorway before the bypass was completed.

From here, the primary nature of the A610 is under question with contradictory evidence from both mapping and the signage on the ground.

Nuthall – Ambergate

Still dual carriageway, but this time grade-separated and with nothing around at all, the road rather nonsensically carries a 40 mph limit, which randomly becomes 50 further down when a central crash barrier appears. At a GSJ with the A6096 and B6010 (not far from the old route) at a large retail park with stores including Comet, Decathlon and Ikea, the road becomes NSL. A further GSJ with the A608 makes the A610 single-carriageway as it skirts Langley Mill on a bypass before joining the old route to pass through Woodlinkin (on a rather interesting D1 section carrying a 50 limit) on the way to Codnor, where at the top of a hill it meets the terminus of A6007 at a set of lights. The A610 goes through Codnor to Ripley, where we meet the former route, the B6441, which passes through the town centre, we turn right (at a Sainsbury's store) at the roundabout along a bypass. Two further roundabouts, with the Derbyshire police HQ, and a second access to the retail park, bring up the NSL alignment of the bypass which is S2 but there's no access until we pass the A38, and B6441 again, at a large roundabout, the A38 accessible by slip roads.

Bull Bridge

The remaining section of the route is relatively twisty (carrying a 40mph limit) as we approach the Peak District, though never actually reaching the National Park itself (for that the A6 is needed). The B6013 crosses at a signalled junction. The road then passes alongside a railway line at Bullbridge (a right turn under the railway to Crich and the Tramway Museum) before passing under it at a low bridge. Prior to entering Ambergate the railway is crossed again, before a third railway crossing (on the Matlock line) leads to our termination on a T-junction with the A6 at Ambergate, by a former restaurant.

History

In the Eastwood area the A610 formerly passed along what is now the B600, an unclassified road, and B6010, before multiplexing with the A608 to Langley Mill and following another unclassified road to the current alignment. The bypass up to the A608 junction opened in 1976 along the trackbed of the former Great Northern Railway, with it being extended in 1983 to bypass Langley Mill too.

The 1.2 mile Ripley Northern Bypass from Hartshay Interchange to Nottingham Road was opened on 2 November 1984 by David Bookbinder, County Council leader. The old route through Ripley is now the B6441. Contractor was Henry Boot Civil Engineering Ltd., cost £2.1 million.