A55

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avtur
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Re: A55

Post by avtur »

wrinkly wrote: Sun Feb 14, 2021 00:36
avtur wrote: Sat Feb 13, 2021 18:46 Nowhere in any of the web links is there any sort of graphical/image-based link as to what is being proposed, in my book that is a complete fail. :cry:
Try here:

https://gov.wales/chester-bangor-trunk- ... 2018-no-64

Many thanks :)
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jackal
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Re: A55

Post by jackal »

Thanks for that.

I was curious about why the docs mentioned 'almost all' direct property accesses being removed. From what I can see the only remaining private access will be the relatively well engineered LILO here (minus the ridiculous reserve gap). This will be linked up to Bryn-Meddyg, removing this harum scarum access.
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Re: A55

Post by Glenn A »

Bryn666 wrote: Sat Feb 13, 2021 19:24
Glenn A wrote: Sat Feb 13, 2021 19:19 The sixties trend to building a new carriageway next to the existing carriageway might have saved time then, but has proven to be shortsighted as traffic levels grew, and made sections of roads like the A1 dangerous.
The vertical undulations of such carriageways is massively reduced as a risk if traffic is heading in the same direction. Adding a new carriageway next to the existing road enabled a lot more dualling to be done in the 1960s.

It should have been considered for the A9 and better quality parts of the A96 in Scotland rather than trying to reinvent the wheel at significant expense and disruption to people using them.
It saved time, but these roads are now out of date and quite dangerous in places where you have houses next to 70 mph roads.
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Bryn666
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Re: A55

Post by Bryn666 »

Glenn A wrote: Sun Feb 14, 2021 12:12
Bryn666 wrote: Sat Feb 13, 2021 19:24
Glenn A wrote: Sat Feb 13, 2021 19:19 The sixties trend to building a new carriageway next to the existing carriageway might have saved time then, but has proven to be shortsighted as traffic levels grew, and made sections of roads like the A1 dangerous.
The vertical undulations of such carriageways is massively reduced as a risk if traffic is heading in the same direction. Adding a new carriageway next to the existing road enabled a lot more dualling to be done in the 1960s.

It should have been considered for the A9 and better quality parts of the A96 in Scotland rather than trying to reinvent the wheel at significant expense and disruption to people using them.
It saved time, but these roads are now out of date and quite dangerous in places where you have houses next to 70 mph roads.
You wouldn't keep the bits that are next to houses then if you were doing this today. You'd go around those bits and create a service road.
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wrinkly
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Re: A55

Post by wrinkly »

jackal wrote: Sun Feb 14, 2021 11:13 From what I can see the only remaining private access will be the relatively well engineered LILO here (minus the ridiculous reserve gap).
Looks like they've done a bit of the work in advance. Streetview also has what that looked like in 2016:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.23019 ... 312!8i6656
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wrinkly
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Re: A55

Post by wrinkly »

KeithW wrote: Sun Feb 14, 2021 09:21
wrinkly wrote: Sun Feb 14, 2021 00:36 In a couple of places, I think near Stamford maybe, the original dualling of the A1 left a pub or other building between the carriageways, then some years later a further improvement diverted the original carriageway to the same side of the building as the second carriageway.
The original A1 upgrade was pretty much done piecemeal with major bottlenecks such as Stamford, Grantham and Hatfield getting bypasses and then the bits in between being dualled online. I dont recall any hotels between carriageways but there were a number on roundabouts and in some places there are still businesses on roundabouts such as those at Buckden and Sandy.
All this belongs in another thread but ...

I travelled the A1 several times a year between Newark and Alconbury between 1967 and 1972 when I was a student. I thought I remembered a building or buildings in the central reservation in 1967 but bypassed by 1972, so I've been searching the old one-inch maps on SABRE Maps. It seems I was thinking of Sawtry. 1960 and 1964 seem to show a possible building there. The 1968 map shows the stretch of separated carriageways as longer and with possibly 3 buildings. By the 1971 map the southbound carriageway has been moved west alongside the northbound.

A couple of other points I noticed during the search:

1) I've claimed previously on here that there was once a full trumpet at Alconbury. The 1968 1" map shows it. I think the inner loop was removed when the A14 Huntingdon bypass was built, but the original bridge remained part of the junction until the A1 was upgraded to A1(M).

2) A previous thread discussed former roundabouts on the A1 but I don't think the A645 at Knottingley was mentioned. I didn't know about it until now.
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Re: A55

Post by Rillington »

And has there been any progress regarding removing the roundabouts at Penmaenmawr and Llanfairfechan?
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Bryn666
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Re: A55

Post by Bryn666 »

Rillington wrote: Tue Feb 16, 2021 16:01 And has there been any progress regarding removing the roundabouts at Penmaenmawr and Llanfairfechan?
Not what I am aware of, and in all reality, these two roundabouts are not critical replacements - they're nice to haves. The A55 doesn't grind to a halt because of these, it grinds to a halt because of the Britannia Bridge.
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Herned
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Re: A55

Post by Herned »

The Welsh Government page (updated August 2019), says they have EU funding and intend to start this year. It also says they would be going through the statutory processes last year, but as it hasn't been updated it's probably safe to assume that it's been delayed.
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KeithW
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Re: A55

Post by KeithW »

wrinkly wrote: Sun Feb 14, 2021 14:41 1) I've claimed previously on here that there was once a full trumpet at Alconbury. The 1968 1" map shows it. I think the inner loop was removed when the A14 Huntingdon bypass was built, but the original bridge remained part of the junction until the A1 was upgraded to A1(M).

2) A previous thread discussed former roundabouts on the A1 but I don't think the A645 at Knottingley was mentioned. I didn't know about it until now.
This what the Alconbury junction looked like in 1973. It was a right royal pain but before the Huntingdon bypass opened the whole route was poor. To get on to the A14 you had to cross over the old Huntingdon Town bridge and go up the high street and along an S2 road through the Stukeleys. Once the bypass opened Alconbury became a major bottleneck as 2 lanes of traffic along the D2 A14 had to squeeze onto a single lane sliproad to get on to the A1.
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Justin Smith
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Re: A55

Post by Justin Smith »

Whilst researching the opening dates of the A55 (to add, ironically, to my Cobbs rail atlas) and came across this source about the ground conditions for the roads construction. I includes almost all the opening dates for the various sections and the map references. Very useful, I wish I'd found it earlier..... :

https://u3asites.org.uk/files/r/ruthin/ ... ground.pdf

Some of the dates aren't quite the same as other references, not sure why, but it might be down to the differences between road finished and road open to traffic ?
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Re: A55

Post by c2R »

Thanks for this link, it's very interesting -

For reference, I've also added it to archive.org in case it goes dead in the future https://web.archive.org/web/20210621081 ... ground.pdf
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Re: A55

Post by Rillington »

Bryn666 wrote: Tue Feb 16, 2021 16:15
Rillington wrote: Tue Feb 16, 2021 16:01 And has there been any progress regarding removing the roundabouts at Penmaenmawr and Llanfairfechan?
Not what I am aware of, and in all reality, these two roundabouts are not critical replacements - they're nice to haves. The A55 doesn't grind to a halt because of these, it grinds to a halt because of the Britannia Bridge.
I recall reading about plans to build a ew bridge across the Menai Straits as a way to resolve the issues at the Britannia Bridge. Has this idea been shelved/cancelled or are these plans still being considered?
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jackal
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Re: A55

Post by jackal »

Rillington wrote: Tue Jun 22, 2021 19:32
Bryn666 wrote: Tue Feb 16, 2021 16:15
Rillington wrote: Tue Feb 16, 2021 16:01 And has there been any progress regarding removing the roundabouts at Penmaenmawr and Llanfairfechan?
Not what I am aware of, and in all reality, these two roundabouts are not critical replacements - they're nice to haves. The A55 doesn't grind to a halt because of these, it grinds to a halt because of the Britannia Bridge.
I recall reading about plans to build a ew bridge across the Menai Straits as a way to resolve the issues at the Britannia Bridge. Has this idea been shelved/cancelled or are these plans still being considered?
Canned according to the Guardian article in the other thread.
Rillington
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Re: A55

Post by Rillington »

The phrase used is "put on hold" rather than cancelled but from what I can recall, the project wasn't that far forward and the commencement of building a third crossing wasn't anywhere near being started.
avtur
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Re: A55

Post by avtur »

The recent comments about the A55 are fascinating, until 3 years ago I lived in Stockport and visited Caernarfon almost every weekend through the summer months for over a decade. Having moved from the Stockport to Brighton I haven't traveled the A55 in over 3 years. However, in mid August I will be visiting my old, regular haunt, in Caernarfon for the first time. I'm looking forward to driving the A55 from Chester into North Wales to see what has changed in the intervening period.
fras
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Re: A55

Post by fras »

Well, the traffic's as bad as ever until you get past Conwy ! I came this way quite a few times when my daughter was at Bangor University about 8 years ago, and recently as well.
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Justin Smith
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Re: A55

Post by Justin Smith »

c2R wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 09:17 Thanks for this link, it's very interesting -

For reference, I've also added it to archive.org in case it goes dead in the future https://web.archive.org/web/20210621081 ... ground.pdf
As a point of interest this paragraph is not quite correct :

26 Pont Britannia. 547702 to 539713. 1980 This bridge was built by Robert Stevenson (about 1850) as a tubular steel box beam
supported on 3 masonry towers on piers, the central pier founded on a mid channel islet. Unfortunately there was a severe train fire
inside the box beam in 1970 which terminally weakened the original bridge. The box beam was replaced by steel arch supported spans
with a new road (now the A55) on top of the railway, but still using the original towers. These towers are constructed with
Carboniferous Limestone rock from near Red Wharf Bay on Anglesey. As the A55 approaches the bridge from the east it crosses the
Dinorwic Fault onto shallow glacial deposits over varied Carboniferous rocks.


It was not a "train fire" which did for Robert Stephenson's historic bridge. Some kids had been playing and set light to the bitumen used to waterproof the bridge. When it was finally put out the heat had weakened and distorted the tubes so they had to be replaced with the current arches.
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rhyds
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Re: A55

Post by rhyds »

Rillington wrote: Wed Jun 23, 2021 20:29 The phrase used is "put on hold" rather than cancelled but from what I can recall, the project wasn't that far forward and the commencement of building a third crossing wasn't anywhere near being started.
IIRC it was still at the consultancy/engagement stage, and was probably tied (directly or indirectly) to the Wylfa Newydd project, which is now not going ahead.
Built for comfort, not speed.
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wrinkly
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Re: A55

Post by wrinkly »

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.
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