Should the Darlington by pass be dualled?

[Glenn A]

I have been in this area and you come off a motorway, end up on a very dated section of S2 and then come to the by pass, which is increasingly unfit for purpose as it is an S2 with roundabouts before you join a D2? While all the talk is of Penrith to Scotch Corner being dualled, surely this should be dualled as it would mean an uninterrupted stretch of D2 from Scotch Corner to South Bank.

[Mark Hewitt]

In a word, yes. It's crazy that you have A66 across the country and A66 is a high quality route from the A19 but it doesn't join up with the A1.

[Glenn A]

In a word, yes. It's crazy that you have A66 across the country and A66 is a high quality route from the A19 but it doesn't join up with the A1.

It's a bad stretch of road, considering it's an important route.

[Bryn666]

Yes, but on a new alignment. The last thing that is needed is an online D2 laden with roundabouts. Retaining the old road as a local distributor then makes sense.

[Achmelvic]

Extend the A66(M) to Teesside!!

[Vierwielen]

Is the Pope a Catholic? Do ursine mammals routinely defecate in forested areas?

Maybe I am reading too much into things, but I understand that any clown who sports a red rosette in Darlington can be elected MP. Labour have the seat tied up, so they are not going to gain much by kicking up a fuss. The Conservatives don't have a snowballs hope in hell, so they are not even going to try. The LibDems rely on good local support which I don't believe exists in Darlington. Does the UKIP have any presence there? I don't know.

Maybe if we had regional governments, there would be more support.

[Chris Bertram]

Is the Pope a Catholic? Do ursine mammals routinely defecate in forested areas?

Maybe I am reading too much into things, but I understand that any clown who sports a red rosette in Darlington can be elected MP. Labour have the seat tied up, so they are not going to gain much by kicking up a fuss. The Conservatives don't have a snowballs hope in hell, so they are not even going to try. The LibDems rely on good local support which I don't believe exists in Darlington. Does the UKIP have any presence there? I don't know.

Maybe if we had regional governments, there would be more support.

The Tories held Darlington well within living memory. Michael Fallon was MP between 1983-92. Current Labour majority is just over 7%, probably safe but not massive.

[jcb336]

Darlington has always been a swing seat-that may be why the bypass was pushed through in the 80s when the Tories held it. It was built as wide S2 as part of the blinkered thinking of the period. Online dualling would be impossible over much of its alignment. It's dangerous, inadequate and unimprovable.

[M19]

Driving along the A66 from Teesside to Penrith involves a bit of a meander,first with the Darlington Bypass taking a large swing south via multiple roundabouts onto the A66(M)to multiplex with the A1(M) and A1 south before making almost a reverse turn to head in a NW direction. The Darlington bypass is poor and suffers almost from the same problems as the A1237, although less chronic. Dualling it won;t solve the issue of roundabouts.

One does wonder if the A66 could bypass north of Darlo and take a similar line to the A67 on the other side of Darlington but join the present A66 route just before Greta Bridge where it bypasses Barnard Castle to the South. It would make a route between Teesside and Penrith more direct.

Quite often if I have travelled from Gateshead to the lakes, I've taken the A688 to cut the corner, as taking the A1 and A66 is like driving round two sides of a triangle to get the same point.

I also quite the A688 even though it has such a mixed character and its has a curious bit of NSL road on an urban stretch through an industrial area here:

http://goo.gl/maps/u5UU2

If it was in a authority with a politically correct "sustainable" transport agenda it would no doubt be 30.

[Keiji]

Well, here's my attempt at a northern bypass and creating a ring road: http://goo.gl/maps/0zbHe

[Achmelvic]

The most likely change to the roads around Darlo in future will be the eventual completion of the Cross Town link from the A68 in the north west to the A66 bypass. This has been on the cards for a few decades and so far three of the five sections have been built, albeit under the guises of other separate schemes. AFAIK there is no date for the missing two sections to be built:

http://goo.gl/maps/09PRs

[Glenn A]

Is the Pope a Catholic? Do ursine mammals routinely defecate in forested areas?

Maybe I am reading too much into things, but I understand that any clown who sports a red rosette in Darlington can be elected MP. Labour have the seat tied up, so they are not going to gain much by kicking up a fuss. The Conservatives don't have a snowballs hope in hell, so they are not even going to try. The LibDems rely on good local support which I don't believe exists in Darlington. Does the UKIP have any presence there? I don't know.

Maybe if we had regional governments, there would be more support.

The Tories held Darlington well within living memory. Michael Fallon was MP between 1983-92. Current Labour majority is just over 7%, probably safe but not massive.

Yes Fallon held the seat for nine years and at the last election the Labour majority was cut by two thirds. Darlo isn't solidly Labour and never has been in the way somewhere like Easington is.
However, back a bit more on topic, a new D2 by pass is needed which would mean an uninterrupted D2 from Scotch Corner to South Bank.

[Truvelo]

The most likely change to the roads around Darlo in future will be the eventual completion of the Cross Town link from the A68 in the north west to the A66 bypass. This has been on the cards for a few decades and so far three of the five sections have been built, albeit under the guises of other separate schemes. AFAIK there is no date for the missing two sections to be built:

http://goo.gl/maps/09PRs

I wonder if an extension eastwards to the A67 is possible?

[Tater]

Maybe A66(M) designation all the way along the Darlington bypass or even all the way to the A19. If you look on the paintings on the ground heading westbound on the A66 at the A167 roundabout it is shown as A66(M) (with no brackets) through Blackwell and the roundabout is large enough for a flyover. Maybe some modification on the other junctions but it could work.

[Rob590]

We had a more recent thread about this in late 2018.

At the moment all energy is going into plans for the Northern Bypass, which will link J59 of the A1(M) and the A66 - presumably, if this does happen, it will be D2. Arguably, the sensible thing to do would then be to extend the A66 to the J59, though there'd be the associated costs of changing road signs.

[Mark Hewitt]

We had a more recent thread about this in late 2018.

At the moment all energy is going into plans for the Northern Bypass, which will link J59 of the A1(M) and the A66 - presumably, if this does happen, it will be D2. Arguably, the sensible thing to do would then be to extend the A66 to the J59, though there'd be the associated costs of changing road signs.

Continuing the A66 to J59 would indeed be the sensible solution and the Darlington bypass would take another number. In the scheme of things renumbering isn’t a huge deal.

[Robert Kilcoyne]

We had a more recent thread about this in late 2018.

At the moment all energy is going into plans for the Northern Bypass, which will link J59 of the A1(M) and the A66 - presumably, if this does happen, it will be D2. Arguably, the sensible thing to do would then be to extend the A66 to the J59, though there'd be the associated costs of changing road signs.

Continuing the A66 to J59 would indeed be the sensible solution and the Darlington bypass would take another number. In the scheme of things renumbering isn’t a huge deal.

If the A66 is rerouted to Junction 59, the current A66(M) would probably have to be renumbered as well. There would also be the question whether the southern Darlington bypass and the A66(M) (or whatever its new number would be) would then be detrunked, which would pass responsibility for maintenance of the A66(M) to North Yorkshire County Council.

[Mark Hewitt]

If the A66 is rerouted to Junction 59, the current A66(M) would probably have to be renumbered as well. There would also be the question whether the southern Darlington bypass and the A66(M) (or whatever its new number would be) would then be detrunked, which would pass responsibility for maintenance of the A66(M) to North Yorkshire County Council.

Regardless of what new number the bypass would have. I would suggest scrapping the Ax(M) designation here and simply have it as a spur of the A1(M) there's really no need for it to exist as a seperate motorway.

[KeithW]

We had a more recent thread about this in late 2018.

At the moment all energy is going into plans for the Northern Bypass, which will link J59 of the A1(M) and the A66 - presumably, if this does happen, it will be D2. Arguably, the sensible thing to do would then be to extend the A66 to the J59, though there'd be the associated costs of changing road signs.

I dont think the Northern bypass can be called the A66 for 2 reasons

1) The A66 is a strategic road running from Teesport to Workington
2) Having a junction at Great Burdon where 3 roads intersect all bearing the number A66 would be odd to say the least.

The existing bypass is numbered the A1150 (formerly B1256) from Great Burdon to Harrowgate Hill and the follows the A167 to J59. Since the new route looks to go from Great Burdon to J59 it looks to me as if a better option would be be to reuse A1150 for the new bypass and downgrade the old road to Harowgate Hill to a B road.

[Bryn666]

Be a big signing job but I'd say reroute the A167 onto the northern bypass and extend the A1150 down to the A68, which in turn should be pushed down to meet the A66.

Of course no one actually cares about road numbers outside of us geeks so why bother. Might as well call the bypass Darius and have done with it.