A55

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danfw194
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Re: A55

Post by danfw194 »

I was in Wales over Bank Holiday Weekend. Drove the A55 a few times, seems like relatively decent progress is being made on the Aber to Tai’r Meibion stretch. I didn't realise that Average Speeds Cameras had gone up here too.
Forgive my laziness at not digging around for this info, but the new bit of road being created, is that going to be the new access road? Or instead will that become the eastbound A55 carriageway, with the access road taking over the current westbound A55 carriageway?
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A303Chris
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Re: A55

Post by A303Chris »

wrinkly wrote: Tue Aug 17, 2021 19:46 Press release on the Aber to Tai'r Meibion works:

https://gov.wales/major-resilience-and- ... ssing-well
A £30 million scheme on the A55 to improve safety, further protect against flooding and provide a new active travel route is progressing well, Minister for North Wales Lesley Griffiths said after a visit to the site.

The Aber to Tai’r Meibion scheme will improve safety and resilience along a 2.2km stretch of the carriageway by removing direct accesses off the carriageway as well as removing eight gaps in the central reservation which currently allow slow moving agricultural vehicles to cross the A55. It will also further protect the carriageway from flooding, building on work already done to deal with the impact of climate change.

Four kilometres of active travel routes are also part of the scheme, which will help encourage more walking and cycling in the area.

The work is being carried out by Alun Griffiths Contractors who are employing a mostly local workforce. Griffiths are training two apprentice engineers and are taking on a graduate project management student in August for a two-week period to help gain work experience.

...

The £30 million scheme, which includes £14.7 million ERDF funding, is expected to be completed by summer 2022.
Where is is this on the A55, can't seem to find a map and can not find the places on an OS map.
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rhyds
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Re: A55

Post by rhyds »

I believe its this area, where the A55 was improved on-line and has a few poor standard junctions/accesses

https://www.google.com/maps/@53.224566, ... 979,13.44z
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danfw194
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Re: A55

Post by danfw194 »

It's between J11 and J14 - that's a little imprecise, works don't quite stretch to those extents, but you get the idea.

At the moment, Eastbound is a 40mph limit through the works, controlled by average speed cameras. Westbound remains at NSL.
fras
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Re: A55

Post by fras »

Saw the works as we drove back from Beamaris on Saturday, (its not so visible in the other direction). It is my understanding that a new service road is being constructed on the north side of the A55 to allow the various access points and crossings to be closed, so access to/from the A55 will be at two locations only, these improved with over/under bridges to allow the west-bound lane of the A55 to be accessed. Quite an extensive upgrade ! I was always nervous coming along here to visit Bangor a few years ago when my daughter was at university there.
All we need now are 2nd tunnels alongside the two existing one, and the roundabouts near them to be made GSJs and the job will be complete !
Oh, and widening to 3 lanes between Queensferry and Conwy. The A55 seems to attract a huge percentage of tootlers who can't seem to get up to more than 50 mph.
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danfw194
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Re: A55

Post by danfw194 »

fras wrote: Tue Aug 31, 2021 14:10 All we need now are 2nd tunnels alongside the two existing one, and the roundabouts near them to be made GSJs and the job will be complete !
Oh, and widening to 3 lanes between Queensferry and Conwy. The A55 seems to attract a huge percentage of tootlers who can't seem to get up to more than 50 mph.
I like the non-tunnel bits on the Eastbound side! They're quite fun!

Yep, the sooner those roundabouts are gone the better.

With the D3 widening, I think you would only really need to go as far west as St. Asaph in my opinion. I don't have any stats to back up my theory, but from experience traffic tends to thin out west of here, because a lot of people are leaving/joining the A55 here to/from Rhyl and Prestatyn. Plus you'd never have the room to widen to D3 through the Colwyn section.
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wrinkly
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Re: A55

Post by wrinkly »

At Penmaenbach (between Conwy and Penmaenmawr) the alignment is designed to allow a future eastbound tunnel, but I haven't heard any mention of it for years, probably decades.

At Pen-y-Clip (between Penmaenmawr and Llanfairfechan) I think the existing eastbound route via the short 1930s tunnels is perfectly adequate. There's nowhere to put a new tunnel anyway.

Incidentally, when the dualling at Pen-y-Clip was being planned, the first idea was to use the old road (now the eastbound) for westbound traffic, and put eastbound traffic on a marine viaduct.

I assume work on the two GSJs is currently suspended along with most other major trunk road schemes in Wales?
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danfw194
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Re: A55

Post by danfw194 »

wrinkly wrote: Tue Aug 31, 2021 14:37 At Penmaenbach (between Conwy and Penmaenmawr) the alignment is designed to allow a future eastbound tunnel, but I haven't heard any mention of it for years, probably decades.

At Pen-y-Clip (between Penmaenmawr and Llanfairfechan) I think the existing eastbound route via the short 1930s tunnels is perfectly adequate. There's nowhere to put a new tunnel anyway.

Incidentally, when the dualling at Pen-y-Clip was being planned, the first idea was to use the old road (now the eastbound) for westbound traffic, and put eastbound traffic on a marine viaduct.

I assume work on the two GSJs is currently suspended along with most other major trunk road schemes in Wales?
It always surprises me that Pen-y-Clip doesn't have a lower speed limit. NSL is very fast through there. Especially when there's a 30 limit at Penmaenbach. Penmaenbach is trickier and tighter, but not by a 40mph margin.
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rhyds
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Re: A55

Post by rhyds »

wrinkly wrote: Tue Aug 31, 2021 14:37
I assume work on the two GSJs is currently suspended along with most other major trunk road schemes in Wales?
No, from what I gather all works that were planned to be or were underway before the stoppage announcement was made can continue, including the A55 improvements.
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fras
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Re: A55

Post by fras »

wrinkly wrote: Tue Aug 31, 2021 14:37 At Penmaenbach (between Conwy and Penmaenmawr) the alignment is designed to allow a future eastbound tunnel, but I haven't heard any mention of it for years, probably decades.

At Pen-y-Clip (between Penmaenmawr and Llanfairfechan) I think the existing eastbound route via the short 1930s tunnels is perfectly adequate. There's nowhere to put a new tunnel anyway.

Incidentally, when the dualling at Pen-y-Clip was being planned, the first idea was to use the old road (now the eastbound) for westbound traffic, and put eastbound traffic on a marine viaduct.

I assume work on the two GSJs is currently suspended along with most other major trunk road schemes in Wales?
At Pen-y-Clip, I agree it is OK, but the Penmaenbach "wiggle" needs attention even if a tunnel can't be afforded. I would have thought some straightening was possible, but I'm not a civil engineer, so maybe others who are can comment.

We've come a long way, though, because in 1943 my father, as part of his RAF driving test, took a 3 tonner over the Conwy suspension bridge in the east-bound direction at night, and no headlights were allowed, or maybe masked ones.
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Re: A55

Post by Rillington »

rhyds wrote: Tue Aug 31, 2021 15:14
wrinkly wrote: Tue Aug 31, 2021 14:37
I assume work on the two GSJs is currently suspended along with most other major trunk road schemes in Wales?
No, from what I gather all works that were planned to be or were underway before the stoppage announcement was made can continue, including the A55 improvements.
That's the impression given.

It's a shame that this likely means the shelving of any ideas to improve things regarding the crossing of the Menai Straits.
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rhyds
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Re: A55

Post by rhyds »

Rillington wrote: Sun Sep 05, 2021 19:23
rhyds wrote: Tue Aug 31, 2021 15:14
wrinkly wrote: Tue Aug 31, 2021 14:37
I assume work on the two GSJs is currently suspended along with most other major trunk road schemes in Wales?
No, from what I gather all works that were planned to be or were underway before the stoppage announcement was made can continue, including the A55 improvements.
That's the impression given.

It's a shame that this likely means the shelving of any ideas to improve things regarding the crossing of the Menai Straits.
Cancellation of Wylfa Newydd rather sank that plan.
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Re: A55

Post by spacetweek »

What is this stoppage you're referring to?
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rhyds
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Re: A55

Post by rhyds »

spacetweek wrote: Fri Sep 10, 2021 17:38 What is this stoppage you're referring to?
Wylfa Newydd was the planned £20bn replacement for the Wylfa Nuclear Power Station on Ynys Mon which got canned in January

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-55833186

Any upgrade to the Menai crossings is now a long way off, as there's no big infrastructure project like Wylfa Newydd to tag it on to, also there's no Senedd election for five years, so they can't "Humber Bridge" it either
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orudge
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Re: A55

Post by orudge »

And the Welsh government announced a suspension of "all future road building plans":

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/202 ... ding-plans

"The announcement means plans for a third Anglesey crossing will be put on hold"
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Re: A55

Post by TimM3-A55 »

The works now appear to be on google maps street view

I can't believe its taken this long to close the gaps. They were the only central reservation gaps 16/17 years ago and in the four years I lived in Bangor I only saw any of them being used twice. You'd have to be barking mad to attempt a right turn when the A55 is anything but dead quite.
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wrinkly
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Re: A55

Post by wrinkly »

Thanks for pointing that out. If you switch to the eastbound side you can see the new parallel access road taking shape over quite a distance.
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jackal
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Re: A55

Post by jackal »

The Streetview car went along in October, showing the Aber to Tai'r Meibion works nearing completion. It seems somewhat overbuilt, looking like it's own little dual carriageway next to the existing one, with a bewildering number of fences. I don't really see why a private access needs to be physically separated from an NMU route when the number of motor vehicles will be tiny.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.23033 ... 384!8i8192
fras
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Re: A55

Post by fras »

jackal wrote: Tue Nov 08, 2022 17:03 The Streetview car went along in October, showing the Aber to Tai'r Meibion works nearing completion. It seems somewhat overbuilt, looking like it's own little dual carriageway next to the existing one, with a bewildering number of fences. I don't really see why a private access needs to be physically separated from an NMU route when the number of motor vehicles will be tiny.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.23033 ... 384!8i8192
I suppose it is to keep the tractors and other motorised farm machinery off the A55
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jackal
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Re: A55

Post by jackal »

fras wrote: Tue Nov 08, 2022 17:33
jackal wrote: Tue Nov 08, 2022 17:03 The Streetview car went along in October, showing the Aber to Tai'r Meibion works nearing completion. It seems somewhat overbuilt, looking like it's own little dual carriageway next to the existing one, with a bewildering number of fences. I don't really see why a private access needs to be physically separated from an NMU route when the number of motor vehicles will be tiny.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.23033 ... 384!8i8192
I suppose it is to keep the tractors and other motorised farm machinery off the A55
Yes, that's what the access road is for, but it doesn't explain why the NMU route is physically separated from the access road.
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