A556 Preferred Route Announced

[Jeni]

Of course the other hotel at the BP filling station is no doubt empty by now !

Travelodges don't rely on passing trade, when I worked there most people had prebooked... In that situation location doesn't matter beyond being vaguely near where the guest wants to be.

[PeterA5145]

The temporary 40 limit southbound had been removed yesterday morning

[fras]

Of course the other hotel at the BP filling station is no doubt empty by now !

Travelodges don't rely on passing trade, when I worked there most people had prebooked... In that situation location doesn't matter beyond being vaguely near where the guest wants to be.

OK, so the filling station may survive on Travelodge guests nearly out of petrol when they get there due to the queer arrangements for getting to the old road. (joke !!)

[wrinkly]

The Little Chef and petrol station are still in use - and do still appear to be well frequented, or perhaps that was just the time of day. The pedestrian subway under the new road has presumably been open for some time.

No, it has been structurally complete for a year but was still not usable when I was last there a week after the road opened. You still couldn't get within 50 yards of its west end and they'd only just finished regrading the mud round its east end. It will probably open at the same time as the Old Hall Lane link road (assuming that hasn't opened since I was there).

[RickyB_uk]

I've noticed Google Maps have finally got round to adding the A556 - except that it's only shown single carriageway, the A50 junction is missing, the roundabout at the end of the southbound junction is missing, and for routing purposes, it looks like it will assume you can turn right or left at any side road that actually crosses at a bridge

[Bryn666]

They do mess up royally sometimes.

[vlad]

The Little Chef and petrol station are still in use - and do still appear to be well frequented, or perhaps that was just the time of day. The pedestrian subway under the new road has presumably been open for some time.

No, it has been structurally complete for a year but was still not usable when I was last there a week after the road opened. You still couldn't get within 50 yards of its west end and they'd only just finished regrading the mud round its east end. It will probably open at the same time as the Old Hall Lane link road (assuming that hasn't opened since I was there).

The subway was certainly open when I walked through it on 18th March. I figured it had been open for ages as the locals were using it as well. Old Hall Lane was still closed - I had to climb over the fence!

[wrinkly]

So were the locals all climbing over the fence too? I'm a bit confused. Where were they going to/coming from at the west end?

[RickyB_uk]

I've noticed Google Maps have finally got round to adding the A556 - except that it's only shown single carriageway, the A50 junction is missing, the roundabout at the end of the southbound junction is missing, and for routing purposes, it looks like it will assume you can turn right or left at any side road that actually crosses at a bridge

I notice that overnight, all of my criticisms have been fixed: it's a dual carriageway. Routing correctly takes into account bridges, the southbound junction has a (sort-of) roundabout, and the A50 junction is in. Did someone tip them off overnight? Or maybe Google monitors SABRE postings?

[nowster]

Or maybe Google monitors SABRE postings?

Didn't you realise: they monitor everything!

[vlad]

So were the locals all climbing over the fence too? I'm a bit confused. Where were they going to/coming from at the west end?

The west end links to the roundabout as far as I can tell, although I didn't go that way to find out. I'm assuming that's where people were walking from.

It's possible of course that the subway wasn't officially open but the only fence I saw was the one across Old Hall Lane. Perhaps the people of Tabley were just using it for the novelty value.

[wrinkly]

Looking at the plan again I see that pedestrians going west through the subway might have been able to turn south towards the western bridge of J19 and cross the M6 there. (And of course similarly in the opposite direction.)

I'd forgotten that that route existed. On recent visits I'd only looked at it by approaching from the west along Old Hall Lane and coming to the fence above the C of "C610 Old Hall Lane", or by looking from near Tabley Parish Hall.

I'm looking at "Works plans sheet 2 of 7" here:

https://infrastructure.planninginspecto ... 0Plans.pdf

[ais523]

Or maybe Google monitors SABRE postings?

If I remember correctly, at least one SABRE member is approved to submit corrections to Google maps. Of course, plenty of non-SABRE-members are too, so it was probably someone else, but it could have been us.

[wrinkly]

The new A556 now has DLSs - and they're anomalous!

They're measured from J19 so they increase towards Manchester, yet that carriageway is B, and the Northwich-bound carriageway is A.

The system continues along the M56 spur, except that the signs there say M56 SPUR instead of A556.

One sign has been in place for much longer than the others, and that one is either doubly anomalous, or the only one that's right. Bryn posted a picture of it in his post of September 13th near the bottom of page 18. But it says B, though it's on the Northwich-bound carriageway, on which all the other signs say A. (It's the first one you encounter after turning off the westbound M56, and is near the start of the slip road to the new southern Bowdon roundabout.)

[Jeni]

There has been a DLS on the A50 slip road since it opened... A556 M.

Don't get too excited, it's the M slip road

[Bryn666]

That sounds like the contractors have put them up wrong then; they've been up since opening but I hadn't paid much attention to them.

As there is zero intention to ever carry the trunk road West of the M6 the chainage markers start at 0.0 and the A carriageway was away from the M6.

M56 SPUR was a Highways England decision as they didn't want to have to lengthy M, K, L sliproads etc. Nope, we did try A556(M) and were rebuked so we copied the T5 Spur DLS at Heathrow.

Others have pointed out the issue with the other major 'M56 SPUR'... which is actually the mainline at the Sharston fork. HE have a simple solution for awkward motorways like that... they don't bother with DLS at all. The same happens to the A666(M), which is devoid of DLS because M61 A 0.0 is at the A580 split.

[wrinkly]

Checking the first posted videos I see you're right that the DLSs have been there since opening. Either one sign is wrong, or else all but one are!

I noticed the A556 M sign yesterday.

I don't think it's necessarily a problem for DLSs if a motorway has more than one spur. The numbers can still be unique. One way of ensuring this, in almost all cases at least, is to project the numering system on the mainline forwards or backwards along each spur, rather than using a fresh origin for each spur. This could conceivably produce non-unique numbers if a long spur is close to another spur.

[Bryn666]

Hopefully the snagging will pick it up........

... no I'm not hopeful either. I'm sure it's wrong if B is away from the M6, but it could be the case that minority of signs are wrong. That said it could all have changed after I left CP&I and A is now away from the M56.

[wrinkly]

I also had a look at the ex-A556 and other side roads. Lots of waiting for multiphase traffic lights. If you try it, take something to read!

They seem to be concentrating on Mere Corner, the only place I noticed any change in the last 2.5 weeks. This is sensible as I woud say the first priority is to fix things for through traffic on the A50.

The ex-A556 is currently southbound-only from the A5034 to the A50.

The most interesting temporary layout is where they are building a roundabout where the link road from the Tabley junction meets the ex-A556. To get from Mere to the now-dead end at J19 or vice versa, you have to wait an age at the lights, curve west round a one-lane curve, over the new A556, double back at the roundabout west of the new A556, wait another age at the lights and then curve north or south round the other one-lane curve.

That's when the lights are working. On Sunday they seemed to be on permanent red to all approaches, and the only way anybody got anywhere was by eventually ignoring them.

I wonder if there's a date for completion of the side roads?

[AtoB]

I don't think this has been mentioned before in this thread. Since now that there's a brand new shiny motorway-ish link between m6 j19 and the M56 at Bowdon, it looks like it's ready to be extended . .

Considering that HE (I believe) were seriously looking at options a couple of years ago, to provide another link from NW Manchester to the M6 to relieve the M62/M6 interchange at Croft, has there been any mention of extending the new road at Bowdon, past the west side of Altrincham / Sale to link up with the M60 at J8 . . ? Was there ever any serious talk of providing a new road through this obvious-looking corridor through to Manchester ?