White City Circle
White City Circle | |||
Location Map ( geo) | |||
| |||
Location | |||
Old Trafford | |||
County | |||
Cheshire | |||
Highway Authority | |||
Trafford | |||
Junction Type | |||
Hamburger + T-junction | |||
Roads Joined | |||
A56, A5063, A5067, A5081 | |||
Junctions related to the A5063 | |||
Junctions related to the A5067 | |||
Junctions related to the A5081 | |||
White City Circle is a junction near the Old Trafford football ground, southwest of Manchester city centre.
History
It was originally a simple T junction serving the A56 and A5063. By the 1960s it had become a roundabout. This lasted until around the early 1990s when a retail park opened and the A5063 was extended southwards. The junction became a signalised crossroads. The final change came when the A56 was diverted onto a new alignment and the junction as we know it today came into existence.
Unrealised proposals
Had the original 1960s M60 proposals came to fruition the junction would have been radically different. The original M60 was to connect the centre of Manchester to the M6 at Knutsford and would have carried the bulk of traffic heading south. The junction was designed accordingly to handle large traffic volumes as it would cater for movements between the A56 and the unbuilt Inner Ring Road as well as through traffic. C/D Lanes northeast of the junction would have been provided for this purpose.
The M60 was seen as a long term proposal to be built in the future and it succumbed to the cuts of the mid-1970s when the other urban motorway proposals for Manchester were scrapped.
Routes
Route | To | Notes |
Manchester, Ashton-u-Lyne (A635) | ||
(M60), Altrincham, Sale, White City Retail Park | ||
(M602, M62), Salford | ||
Trafford Park | ||
Chester (M56), Chorlton, Stockport (A5014) | ||
Hulme, Old Trafford | ||
Manchester, Birmingham (M6), Chester (M56), Altrincham | access only from A5081 |
Links