Pathetic Dual Carriageways.

[M19]

Even back then most roads were grant aided by the government, yes the county planned them, but the MoT had a big say on which roads were built.

Newport Bridge was a major infrastructure investment for Durham CC so it is implausible that North Yorks CC would not have had to build roads to feed into it.

The fact that roads either side of the bridge will build at the same time as the bridge gives some planning overview and the fact that most of these were built to a similar standard S4/D2. As I said the missing link was Marton Road to Acklam Road section through Middlesbrough, but the fact the designation was continued along those show it was considered a through route. I am talking about roads built in the 1930's not the 1970's

ICI Billingham was built at the request of the government during world war 1, and it main customer was the Army.

The requirement for the bridge was identified by a joint board from Middlesbrough Corporation and Durham CC in 1925 which requested that Mott Hay and Anderson prepare a design study. The final form of the bridge was chosen as Stockton Docks lay up river so the bridge span had to be liftable. The money was however not available and it was not until 1929 when the Ministry of Transport agreed to meet 75% of the cost that construction was authorized by an act of Parliament.

A bridge without roads either side is neither use nor ornament and there was certainly some planning required. However you need to recall that the Middlesbrough end was very different from what you see today. It was in fact the heart of the Ironmasters district with a mass of blast furnaces and mills. As for the approach roads some of them were S4 or D2 but Newport road only became S4 later since at the time the bridge was built 2 of those lanes were in fact tram lines. As late as the 1960's you could see the top of the rails when the road surface was worn. The trams were withdrawn in 1934 just after the bridge opened.

The main through road was in fact down Ayresome Street and along Park Road North from which traffic would run either east along the A1085 trunk road or south along Marton road to Stokesley. You would have avoided a route via Acklam Road and Marton as Ladgate lane was a very poor route indeed for heavy traffic since at that time it was just a country lane. There is a bypassed section still in existence at Slip Inn Bank.
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@54.53707 ... 6656?hl=en

The A1130 actually ran from Norton over the Tees Newport Bridge, From there you could follow the A176 west to Thornaby from which you could turn south along the A1045 through High Leven over the river crossing via the bridge at the bottom of Leven Bank. From there you could pick up the A1043 and join the A19 at Kirklevington. This is not the route I would have chosen for a 1930's lorry but it did have the merit of bypassing Stockton and Yarm.

Prior to the A66 and new A19 opening in the 1970's the preferred route to the south from Billingham was over the Newport Bridge , past Albert Park and up the Marton road to Stokesley and the Cleveland Tontine. The route via High Leven was generally avoided.

As for ICI Billingham it was originally planned as a Government munitions plant to make ammonium nitrate explosives but the war ended before it was completed. Brunner and Mond which became ICI took over the unfinished plant in 1920 and completed it as a synthetic ammonia fertilizer plant.
This is why the company social club was called the Synthonia.

The plant expanded quickly with further works such as the one that used the Bergius Process to produce aviation gasoline. By 1934 it was a major commercial success and employed over 5000 people. Many of the leading organic chemists there were actually Jewish refugees from Germany. My best friend at school was the son of one of them.

Isn't the A176 in Essex?

[Ritchie333]

There's a whole wiki out there - A176 (Stockton on Tees - Middlesbrough)

[ajuk]

Was a thread merge really necessary when the original thread had not had a post in 10 years?

[Richardf]

..For a truly pathetic bit of dual on the A35 there is the section at the top of Chideock Hill which i am guessing is old, probably older than the climbing lane up the hill so would have been intended as an overtaking stretch after climbing the hill, however i dont think its really long enough for that.

It may be just a coincidence but that was the exact point where the Chideock and Morcombelake Bypass was to cross the existing road.

Coincidence. The Bypass would have crossed that point at an angle and probably obliterated the old bit of D2.

[AlexBr967]

There is an extremely pathetic one here. Still don't understand why the road was built like this. It was once D2 for some reason but is now D1.

[Big Nick]

There is an extremely pathetic one here. Still don't understand why the road was built like this. It was once D2 for some reason but is now D1.

That road is present on maps from the 1890s. It was the main route from the town centre north and east. Presumably it was straighter until the sharp turn was put in because of the railway bridge. Slewed bridges cost more and horses are slow enough to take that turn...
Of course, in the 1960s they shut the Central station and built the A61 on the old railway line creating a better and faster road.

[jervi]

There is an extremely pathetic one here. Still don't understand why the road was built like this. It was once D2 for some reason but is now D1.

I'd make a guess that when the bridge was created/widened it was suspected to become part of dual carriageway route. I don't know the area, however maybe at some point the A619 was going to be realigned to the south, so building this bridge as a D2 would allow future realignment without having carry out additional work on the bridge in the future.

[Glenn A]

Not far from me and one I wouldn't mind seeing the back of, the A66 at Bassenthwaite. Fair does, the eastbound section built over the old railway line is decent enough, but the westbound section utilising the old A66 is abysmal, with a 50 mph speed limit, one lane in places and average speed cameras. Either upgrade the damned thing or close it.
OTOH anyone recall the A69 in West Denton which had this orphan section of D2 built in the early 1960s that was 400 yards long and ran roughly from where the roundabout with the A1 is now to the start of the Throckley by pass. Always seemed an unusual oddity.

[KeithW]

The A1130 actually ran from Norton over the Tees Newport Bridge, From there you could follow the A176 west to Thornaby from which you could turn south along the A1045 through High Leven over the river crossing via the bridge at the bottom of Leven Bank. From there you could pick up the A1043 and join the A19 at Kirklevington. This is not the route I would have chosen for a 1930's lorry but it did have the merit of bypassing Stockton and Yarm.

Isn't the A176 in Essex?

That's what you get for touch typing - it should of course have been A167,

[TomJ]

There is an extremely pathetic one here. Still don't understand why the road was built like this. It was once D2 for some reason but is now D1.

There's a similar piece here on the A610 near Ripley which isn't too far away from Chesterfield. I've no idea of the history of it, but it certainly feels slow at 40 and rather peculiar as you're driving along it. I definitely think with a little bit of work it wouldn't be too hard to extend the D2 dual carriageway to the east of this through this section. I can't imagine it's justified however, and what you'd do when it comes to a crashing halt as soon as you reach Ripley is anyone's guess.

[DavidBrown]

Looking at GSV, that A610 example is on some reasonably steep hills and so would initially have been built as climbing lanes.

[jervi]

Looking at GSV, that A610 example is on some reasonably steep hills and so would initially have been built as climbing lanes.

Although, the road markings don't say that you cannot overtake. The line marking on the right side is not a solid line, IIRC the diagonal lines in that context means that it is not a driving lane (i.e. you cannot stay in that lane), but there is nothing stopping one from overtaking, just have to treat it as if it was an on-coming lane, just with no on-coming traffic.

[Glenn A]

There is the comical D1+1 from Calder Bridge to Sellafield that is like two farm tracks seperated by vegetation and a fairly useless road, with most Sellafield workers from the north using the 1980S wide S2 from Beckermet.

[jcb336]

The A1130 actually ran from Norton over the Tees Newport Bridge, From there you could follow the A176 west to Thornaby from which you could turn south along the A1045 through High Leven over the river crossing via the bridge at the bottom of Leven Bank. From there you could pick up the A1043 and join the A19 at Kirklevington. This is not the route I would have chosen for a 1930's lorry but it did have the merit of bypassing Stockton and Yarm.

Isn't the A176 in Essex?

That's what you get for touch typing - it should of course have been A167,

Surely you were right the first time Keith! The 1932 Ten Mile map on Sabre Maps shows the Mdbro-Thornaby Road as the A176. The road from the end of the A1045 is the A1044 and then the B1264 from the junction with Leven Road. As you say the standard of many of these roads would have been pretty poor.

[Owain]

Not only pathetic, but quite inexplicable.

[trickstat]

Not only pathetic, but quite inexplicable.

As there is no footpath on one side of the road it doesn't even function as an impromptu refuge for pedestrians crossing the road.

[KeithW]

Not only pathetic, but quite inexplicable.

As there is no footpath on one side of the road it doesn't even function as an impromptu refuge for pedestrians crossing the road.

No but it is a place to put the lamp posts so both sides of the road are lit.

[trickstat]

Not only pathetic, but quite inexplicable.

As there is no footpath on one side of the road it doesn't even function as an impromptu refuge for pedestrians crossing the road.

No but it is a place to put the lamp posts so both sides of the road are lit.

True. And that means fewer obstacles for wheelchair users and those with prams and buggies.

[Owain]

Here's a similarly comical example.

[trickstat]

Here's a similarly comical example.

I suppose as a single-carriageway that road could have quite a nasty camber on it.