What now for the A494 Expressway "mess"???

[Ste_Nova]

I’m getting my popcorn out for this one... it’s gonna be fun

[Ste_Nova]

The D4 to Aston Hill is a total waste then!

You could D3 it to the next junction but there's the problem of having to replace the bridge over the river which probably rules it out. The lane drop will still be there when I have grey hair

And replace the railway bridge

[Robert Kilcoyne]

I’m getting my popcorn out for this one... it’s gonna be fun

I would imagine that the A494 Aston Hill will now be left as it is, as only traffic from Mold, Ruthin, Buckley and Northop would be using the A494 up to Shotwick. All traffic from Holyhead, Bangor, Llandudno and Rhyl would use the new route unless their ultimate destination was Chester, Wrexham or Whitchurch.

[M56phil]

Sorting the road numbers out is going to be fun.

In fact -it will be a nightmare.

Logically the A55 should continue from the M56 and the A494 can stay where it is I suppose.

The question is - what do they do with the existing A55 from the terminus of the M53 to Northop?

Rename it A51? A56? Or some crazy Axxxx type number? Answers on a postcard please...

[jackal]

Oh, and "Spaghetti Junction on our doorstep" made me lol.

Maybe they meant the remodelled Shotwick junction complex? (Click to resize.)

[Robert Kilcoyne]

Sorting the road numbers out is going to be fun.

In fact -it will be a nightmare.

Logically the A55 should continue from the M56 and the A494 can stay where it is I suppose.

The question is - what do they do with the existing A55 from the terminus of the M53 to Northop?

Rename it A51? A56? Or some crazy Axxxx type number? Answers on a postcard please...

I can see three options:-
(a) renumber the new route as the A56 with the A56 subsumed into a multiplex with the M56 between Dunkirk and Preston Brook. The existing A56 would then be renumbered between Preston Brook and Chester (A5600?) and the A55 would remain as it is.
(b) the new route becomes the A55. The A51 number can be used for the majority of the existing A55 east of Halkyn, but a new number would have to be assigned to the mile or so of the current A55 between the M53/A56 and A51 junctions.
(c) multiplex the A51 and the A54 west of Tarvin, with the A51 taking over the A55 between the A51 and M53/A56 exits, and the A54 taking over the A55 from Vicars Cross up to Halkyn.

[Truvelo]

Despite all the spaghetti at Shotwick there's no direct access between the A550 and new A55. It seems traffic between the Wirral and North Wales will continue using the existing road. This shouldn't be a problem when most M56 traffic has diverted to the new road.

As for numbering, just do the right thing and number it as M56. There's no private accesses at all now east of Shotwick so there's no excuse.

[Ste_Nova]

We need some fantasy junctions for the shotwick end

[Ste_Nova]

The question is - what do they do with the existing A55 from the terminus of the M53 to Northop?

Rename it A51? A56? Or some crazy Axxxx type number? Answers on a postcard please...

M53

[jackal]

I am pondering whether the connection from the existing road to the northbound A550 will actually be freeflow. I suspect this traffic will have to exit at the two-bridge roundabout. Otherwise the weaving space on the northbound carriageway, between the merge from the roundabout and exit for A550, is too tight.

[Truvelo]

I've looked at both maps and they both have poor rendering of the merges so it's hard to tell but it would appear there is freeflow to the A550 for both directions. Weaving isn't going be an issue for what will be much lower traffic flows than at present.

[jackal]

The public exhibition drawings (see below) are the best quality ones I've seen, though still far from clear on merge/diverge arrangements there. Still, the weaving distance can't be more than a few hundred metres, on a rural dual carriageway mainline, and I don't think that will fly.

http://gov.wales/docs/det/publications/ ... bition.pdf

[Bryn666]

I foresee a reduced speed limit and a Departures list the size of Dartmoor.

I'd also expect the designers have said it's a series of slip roads at that point and applied relaxations accordingly.

Now in an ideal world the M56 would be going down to the A55 wouldn't it. Alas.

[6637]

Logically the A55 should continue from the M56 and the A494 can stay where it is I suppose.

The question is - what do they do with the existing A55 from the terminus of the M53 to Northop?

Rename it A51? A56? Or some crazy Axxxx type number? Answers on a postcard please...

Looks like A524, A564, and A568 are currently unused. Just use one of them for the old A55.

[Bryn666]

Be like the French and have A55a and A55b!

[orudge]

Be like the French and have A55a and A55b!

Or the US - A55-N and A55-S! Not to be confused with A55 (N) and A55 (S) of course.

"Take the A55-S (N) towards Chester"...

[roadtester]

Be like the French and have A55a and A55b!

Or the US - A55-N and A55-S! Not to be confused with A55 (N) and A55 (S) of course.

"Take the A55-S (N) towards Chester"...

It could just be fudged with one of them being unnumbered - a bit like the A14(M).

[wrinkly]

It could just be fudged with one of them being unnumbered - a bit like the A14(M).

It's much too long for that. Each branch has several intermediate junctions.

[roadtester]

It could just be fudged with one of them being unnumbered - a bit like the A14(M).

It's much too long for that. Each branch has several intermediate junctions.

It wasn't an entirely serious suggestion.

[AtoB]

Sorting the road numbers out is going to be fun.

In fact -it will be a nightmare.

I don't think it'll be a nightmare, exactly. Well here's my suggestion anyway -

1.
Create a new decent S2 from A548/Kelsterton college junction, to go parallel to the B5129 that goes through Wepre, Shotton, Queensferry (thread this new road under the A494 & have a new junction here). Continue this new road parallel to the B5129, past Sandycroft. Join this new road to the B5129 at Beeches Farm. Continue to the A5104 as it does presently at Saltney. Create a new junction here, and continue to the A55 junction at Two Mile House - which it needs to do - there's no adequate connection between Two Mile House and Sandycroft.

2.
Call the road as described above the A548. Great, so this is now a fully continuous stretch of the A548 down from Prestatyn and Flint to Chester.

3.
A550 can now run from Shotwick to A548/Kelsterton College, up the proposed section to the A55 at Flint mountain

4
That's it