Leicester Eastern Bypass

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SouthWest Philip
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Re: Leicester Eastern Bypass

Post by SouthWest Philip »

I can't help but think a better alternative might be an eastern 'bypass', of sorts, in the form of a new motorway or HQDC from,say, Stevenage to Doncaster. No, I don't mean upgrading the remaining bits of A1 to A1(M)! Rather a new route passing east of Bedford, Kettering, Leicester and Nottingham roughly following the present A600, A6, B6-whatever past Market Harborough, A6097/A614. It would revolutionise access to the east of all the towns and cities on that side of the M1 and provide much better relief to the M1 then hard shoulder running...
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6637
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Re: Leicester Eastern Bypass

Post by 6637 »

SouthWest Philip wrote:I can't help but think a better alternative might be an eastern 'bypass', of sorts, in the form of a new motorway or HQDC from,say, Stevenage to Doncaster. No, I don't mean upgrading the remaining bits of A1 to A1(M)! Rather a new route passing east of Bedford, Kettering, Leicester and Nottingham roughly following the present A600, A6, B6-whatever past Market Harborough, A6097/A614. It would revolutionise access to the east of all the towns and cities on that side of the M1 and provide much better relief to the M1 then hard shoulder running...
I can't imagine a scheme as big as that ever being approved nowadays!

Maybe a smaller version would work. A new high-quality road (ideally a motorway, but realistically it would have to be HQDC) along the line of the A6097/A614, connecting the A46 with the A1.

That would provide a good alternative to the M1.
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Chris5156
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Re: Leicester Eastern Bypass

Post by Chris5156 »

6637 wrote:
SouthWest Philip wrote:I can't help but think a better alternative might be an eastern 'bypass', of sorts, in the form of a new motorway or HQDC from,say, Stevenage to Doncaster. No, I don't mean upgrading the remaining bits of A1 to A1(M)! Rather a new route passing east of Bedford, Kettering, Leicester and Nottingham roughly following the present A600, A6, B6-whatever past Market Harborough, A6097/A614. It would revolutionise access to the east of all the towns and cities on that side of the M1 and provide much better relief to the M1 then hard shoulder running...
I can't imagine a scheme as big as that ever being approved nowadays!

Maybe a smaller version would work. A new high-quality road (ideally a motorway, but realistically it would have to be HQDC) along the line of the A6097/A614, connecting the A46 with the A1.

That would provide a good alternative to the M1.
It's not a bad idea, but it would do very little to help the eastern side of Leicester!
B6047
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Re: Leicester Eastern Bypass

Post by B6047 »

The main benefit of this proposal would be to relieve the existing A563 in south Leicester which is unsuitably narrow for all the traffic heading to the M1/M69 junction. For most of the afternoon/evening the section from Fosse park is solid on approach to glenhills way when the D2 reduces to S2 despite the huge empty green space alongside. Also Shady Lane and the scraptoft-keyham winding country lane and all the other rat runs badly need an alternative. So I think this proposed route needs to be much closer to Leicester to provide access to the motorway for the southern and eastern suburbs. since the A14 was built there isn't that much long distance crossing of the city.
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jackal
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Re: Leicester Eastern Bypass

Post by jackal »

The A563 railway bridge is even built for D2 (https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@52.59700 ... a=!3m1!1e3). The problem is that the road is more or less residential so they presumably don't want to induce traffic onto it with dualling. Hence the bypass.

There is a line where you could take the bypass close to J21, but it's largely parallel to the River Sence (perhaps why that corridor hasn't been built up?) and is so close it would complicate the M1 junction dramatically with braiding etc. Beyond that there's housing in the way until you get to Cosby, which is roughly what's shown on the map.
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Re: Leicester Eastern Bypass

Post by jedikiah »

The whole circle of the Leicester District Distributer (including the bit not built at all) originally had enough land reserved in the 1930s for a dual carriageway build, at least by the standards of the time. It probably would have looked something like Narborough Road South if it had been built by 1970, ie a dual carriageway with service roads either side. In the end the south western part built as dual was further out from the reserved part - Kingsway off Narborough Road South still has the unused reservation for part of the Southern Distributer. The rest wasn't largely because the wide verges had become to be considered public green amenity space in the intervening decades.

Leicester City Council stymied the Eastern District Distributer in the end from their actions in the 1960s, when it gave itself planning permission to build 120 or so council houses in the reservation on Goodwood Road when it was also the Highway Authority. When it came round to it possibly being built in the 1990s these would have needed to be demolished which was considered unacceptable (as well as issues elsewhere on the old route). The EDDR was not meant though to be a substitute for the Eastern Bypass, also planned for the 90s as it was expected to take 90% local traffic.

It is noticeable in retrospect that the distributer only really started to get built after Leicestershire County Council took charge of the highways in 1974. It was never considered a priority by the City Council which concentrated on constructing the inner ring road.
B6047
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Re: Leicester Eastern Bypass

Post by B6047 »

I think J21 would need to be altered anyway if this was built as so much of the traffic would be going onto the M69 it would become impossible to keep the roundabout. A route along the Sence valley would be more useful than one further out.
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Berk
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Re: Leicester Eastern Bypass

Post by Berk »

B6047 wrote:I think J21 would need to be altered anyway if this was built as so much of the traffic would be going onto the M69 it would become impossible to keep the roundabout. A route along the Sence valley would be more useful than one further out.
I had the same thought, because it makes little or no sense to build a road all the way to ‘20a’, when most of it will be flowing back to 21 -either to continue on the M1, or the M69, or 21a for the A46.

Maybe extend it as a spur to 20a, but don’t leave that as the only destination.
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Steven
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Re: Leicester Eastern Bypass

Post by Steven »

jedikiah wrote:In the end the south western part built as dual was further out from the reserved part - Kingsway off Narborough Road South still has the unused reservation for part of the Southern Distributer. The rest wasn't largely because the wide verges had become to be considered public green amenity space in the intervening decades.
The route would have taken it across the roundabout at the end of the ertswhile A46(M), and joined it all up with the end of the M69. Overall, a much better solution than what's in place today.

There are some layouts on the Whetstone Interchange page of the Roaders' Digest: the SABRE Wiki that show the earlier proposed route in the area.
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From the SABRE Wiki: Whetstone Interchange :

Whetstone Interchange is junction 21 of the M1 and junction 3 of the M69.

The most striking feature of the junction is the ski jump where the M69 should have continued eastwards towards the A563. Had it been completed there would also have been a loop enabling southbound M1 traffic to bypass the roundabout to reach the M69.

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