A55

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wrinkly
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Re: A55

Post by wrinkly »

Robert Kilcoyne wrote: Fri Jul 20, 2018 17:40 Returning to the A55, there is also an elderly section of D2 east of St. Asaph whose age is really shown up by the sweeping D2 and climbing lane up Rhuallt Hill less than two miles to the east.
Not quite sure which section you mean. The section immediately east of St Asaph has already undergone one round of improvement (including realignment) since its original dualling. I can remember when it had no marginal strips and a narrow, paved, kerbed central reservation with frequent gaps.

When first dualled (before WW2?) it ran alongside the buildings on the north side here:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.26384 ... a=!3m1!1e3
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Re: A55

Post by Robert Kilcoyne »

wrinkly wrote: Fri Jul 20, 2018 18:30
Robert Kilcoyne wrote: Fri Jul 20, 2018 17:40 Returning to the A55, there is also an elderly section of D2 east of St. Asaph whose age is really shown up by the sweeping D2 and climbing lane up Rhuallt Hill less than two miles to the east.
Not quite sure which section you mean. The section immediately east of St Asaph has already undergone one round of improvement (including realignment) since its original dualling. I can remember when it had no marginal strips and a narrow, paved, kerbed central reservation with frequent gaps.

When first dualled (before WW2?) it ran alongside the buildings on the north side here:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.26384 ... a=!3m1!1e3
It was indeed the section to which you refer; what had stuck in my mind is that it had not been improved when the D2 over Rhuallt Hill was opened.
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wrinkly
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Re: A55

Post by wrinkly »

The improvement there is relatively recent, probably in the noughties - after the entire route had been dualled. More recently still, the St Asaph bypass has been given marginal strips; this actually involved widening the bridges over the A525 roundabout.
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Re: A55

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Robert Kilcoyne wrote: Fri Jul 20, 2018 17:40
Glenn A wrote: Fri Jul 20, 2018 15:52 The problem with much sixties dualling, which while welcome at the time, was sometimes a new carriageway was plonked down next to the old one, which retained things like bus stops, farm entrances and houses, and became hazardous as time went on. It is something that needs to be looked at on roads like the A55, A1 and A66 west of Penrith, and replaced.
The D2 of sorts at Bassenthwaite on the A66, with its sharp bends on the westbound carriageway, springs to mind.

The old A74 between the M6 and Draffan was also notorious for its bus stops, farm accesses and at grade right turns.

Returning to the A55, there is also an elderly section of D2 east of St. Asaph whose age is really shown up by the sweeping D2 and climbing lane up Rhuallt Hill less than two miles to the east.
There is also a section of the A66 to the west of the A592 roundabout that is narrow and is the original carriageway, while eastbound is the new carriageway. I think work should be done to upgrade these sorts of D2, as at St Asaph, as they're out of date and dangerous.
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Re: A55

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Glenn A wrote: Sat Jul 21, 2018 11:26
There is also a section of the A66 to the west of the A592 roundabout that is narrow and is the original carriageway, while eastbound is the new carriageway. I think work should be done to upgrade these sorts of D2, as at St Asaph, as they're out of date and dangerous.
Not as out of date and dangerous as the remaining sections of S2 between Scotch Corner and Penrith the dualling of which must be the main priority.
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Re: A55

Post by Robert Kilcoyne »

KeithW wrote: Sun Jul 22, 2018 11:05
Glenn A wrote: Sat Jul 21, 2018 11:26
There is also a section of the A66 to the west of the A592 roundabout that is narrow and is the original carriageway, while eastbound is the new carriageway. I think work should be done to upgrade these sorts of D2, as at St Asaph, as they're out of date and dangerous.
Not as out of date and dangerous as the remaining sections of S2 between Scotch Corner and Penrith the dualling of which must be the main priority.
What makes the sections of S2 southeast of Penrith so dangerous is that they are sandwiched between decent sections of D2. The twisting S2 through Kirkby Thore and Crackenthorpe separates grade separated D2 bypasses at Temple Sowerby and Appleby, and the six miles of S2 passing Sandford and the MOD training site at Warcop separate the Appleby bypass from the long stretch of D2 over the moors beyond Brough. The A66 is in many ways the northern equivalent of the A303 with some decent stretches of D2 (even HQD2) sandwiched by some narrow and twisty S2.
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Re: A55

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Aber to Tai'r Meibion side roads order now made:

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/notice/3097399

As mentioned in one of my posts on the previous page, no line order is required.
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Re: A55

Post by Glenn A »

KeithW wrote: Sun Jul 22, 2018 11:05
Glenn A wrote: Sat Jul 21, 2018 11:26
There is also a section of the A66 to the west of the A592 roundabout that is narrow and is the original carriageway, while eastbound is the new carriageway. I think work should be done to upgrade these sorts of D2, as at St Asaph, as they're out of date and dangerous.
Not as out of date and dangerous as the remaining sections of S2 between Scotch Corner and Penrith the dualling of which must be the main priority.
There's been another fatal accident near Kirby Thore this week. I think by passing Kirby Thore with a D2 must be a priority, and the opportunity was missed when Temple Sowerby was by passed.
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Re: A55

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Construction of the A55 Abergwyngregyn to Tai’r Meibion improvement started in the autumn. It provides a general modernisation of 2.2km of late 1960s dual carriageway between J12 and J13. This includes hard strips, concrete barriers, improved drainage as well as closure of all eight reserve gaps and 'almost all' direct property accesses. Parallel to the eastbound carriageway a new county road/private access/NMU route will run from J12 to J13. It is expected to complete in Spring 2022 at a cost of £30m.

https://gov.wales/a55-abergwyngregyn-ta ... s-overview
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Re: A55

Post by c2R »

Good news, that section really does feel old - particularly on the older one of the two carriageway.
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Re: A55

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jackal wrote: Sat Feb 13, 2021 16:50 Construction of the A55 Abergwyngregyn to Tai’r Meibion improvement started in the autumn. It provides a general modernisation of 2.2km of late 1960s dual carriageway between J12 and J13. This includes hard strips, concrete barriers, improved drainage as well as closure of all eight reserve gaps and 'almost all' direct property accesses. Parallel to the eastbound carriageway a new county road/private access/NMU route will run from J12 to J13. It is expected to complete in Spring 2022 at a cost of £30m.

https://gov.wales/a55-abergwyngregyn-ta ... s-overview
Great from a safety POV, sad to lose such an ancient bit of D2 from a "fun" POV.

Good to see that Wales is not averse to such improvement. I guess some would just slap a speed limit on it and proclaim job done.
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Re: A55

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jackal wrote: Sat Feb 13, 2021 16:50 Construction of the A55 Abergwyngregyn to Tai’r Meibion improvement started in the autumn. It provides a general modernisation of 2.2km of late 1960s dual carriageway between J12 and J13. This includes hard strips, concrete barriers, improved drainage as well as closure of all eight reserve gaps and 'almost all' direct property accesses. Parallel to the eastbound carriageway a new county road/private access/NMU route will run from J12 to J13. It is expected to complete in Spring 2022 at a cost of £30m.

https://gov.wales/a55-abergwyngregyn-ta ... s-overview
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:
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Re: A55

Post by Glenn A »

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.
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Re: A55

Post by Bryn666 »

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.
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Re: A55

Post by Truvelo »

Such undulations are common in the US. It's obvious the carriageway on the right in this photo is the original. I suppose it may have resulted in risky overtakes when it was S2 but with the numerous gaps it can still pose a hazard for traffic trying to emerge when there may be vehicles approaching at speed hidden in one of the dips. From what I can remember the section of the A55 in question is fairly flat and doesn't suffer this problem.
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Re: A55

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Bryn666 wrote: Sat Feb 13, 2021 18:14 Good to see that Wales is not averse to such improvement. I guess some would just slap a speed limit on it and proclaim job done.
This isn't the first second-generation improvement to the A55. At one time the section east of St Asaph had narrow lanes and a very narrow paved kerbed central reservation with frequent gaps. And there was a house on the south side of the road that had escaped demolition in the original dualling and projected into the verge.
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Re: A55

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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


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.
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.
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Re: A55

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Bryn666 wrote: Sat Feb 13, 2021 19:24 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.
To be fair, the current A9 between Dunblane and Perth, and the majority of the A90 between Dundee and Stonehaven, were evidently upgraded in this sort of manner, and have had average speed cameras put in place to reduce accidents. Central reservation gaps and farm accesses and so on should have no place on a long-distance dual carriageway, I’d argue. To their credit, the then-Scottish Executive did close all but one of the gaps between Dundee and Perth, but there seems to be no plan to improve anything else on the A90 now, other than Laurencekirk.
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Re: A55

Post by KeithW »

wrinkly wrote: Sun Feb 14, 2021 00:36
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.
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. In the 1970's the A1 at Norman Cross was improved as that had been very messy with hotels on both sides of the carriageway. The road was moved to the west on a new alignment but you can clearly see where the old road was, rather ironically called New Road.
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.50375 ... authuser=0

Wetherby has had at least 3 bypasses and of course Hatfield has had several, the last ran past the De Havilland Factory and that was a real mess and a terrible bottleneck until the tunnel was built.

Boroughbridge has had at least two, the original is now the A168 LAR

Tempsford was another section that had to be rebuilt as the A1 literally cut the town in two, it still does of course but at least now there are is an overbridge. This was the original soutbound carriageway which getting on and off the A1 to head towards Everton and Gamlingay was more exciting than I cared for.
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.16399 ... authuser=0

As far as I can see the worst section not in RIS2/3 is between Grantham and Colsterworth where not only there are still some terrible flat junctions but the sight lines are appalling as the road snakes all over the place and undulates.
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.86331 ... authuser=0
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Re: A55

Post by Ross Spur »

jackal wrote: Sat Feb 13, 2021 16:50 Parallel to the eastbound carriageway a new county road/private access/NMU route will run from J12 to J13.
It will be an expressway for cyclists on NCN5 compared to the current detour on the narrow lanes through Glyn and Crymlyn, saving about 180 feet of climbing. Not as pretty though.
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