Should the A64 east of York be dualled?

[Rillington]

There were concrete proposals in the early 1990s to dual the A64 east of Hop Grove but they were shelved. Is it time to finally dual the A64 to allow easier and safer road access to the North Yorkshire coast?

[Beardy5632]

The bit between York and Malton should definitely be.

[Berk]

The bit between York and Malton should definitely be.

+1

[ravenbluemoon]

Yes, certainly up to Malton. That horrible section of DC near Castle Howard may need some attention though as you'd have it sandwiched between two decent sections of modern DC, and I reckon speeds and accidents may rise due to it's substandard nature.

Beyond Malton, you get a good split of traffic between the A64 and A169, so D2 probably isn't essential beyond there. I would suggest that bypasses of Rillington and Sherburn though, and make these and a couple of other sections S2+1 to allow overtaking of tractors, caravans etc.

[Conekicker]

Yes, just dual the lot and be done with it, given how long it takes to get any such scheme done.

Future-proofing, it doesn't have to be a dirty word.

[Owain]

In a recent local TV interview, I saw a councillor from Scarborough suggest that the town loses out to the tourist trade because it doesn't have 'a proper road link'. He cited Blackpool, which has the M55, as an example.

Scarborough is a much nicer place than Blackpool, and certainly deserves a much better connection than it has at present!

[Glenn A]

In a recent local TV interview, I saw a councillor from Scarborough suggest that the town loses out to the tourist trade because it doesn't have 'a proper road link'. He cited Blackpool, which has the M55, as an example.

Scarborough is a much nicer place than Blackpool, and certainly deserves a much better connection than it has at present!

It's still a popular resort with people from all over the North, but is let down by the A64 east of York and an hourly train service to York, which should be half hourly in summer. I'd dual the A64 as far as the edge of Scarborough as clearly it's inadequate for such a popular resort.

[jackal]

The first section immediately east of Hopgrove is in the programme:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=12886&p=984900

[wrinkly]

The first section immediately east of Hopgrove is in the programme:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=12886&p=984900

As reading back in that thread will show, DfT/HA originally wanted to grade separate Hopgrove but found on investigation that dualling to the east would be a better use of the money (as many people on here had commented previously).

[NICK 647063]

This is a Road I use daily and I know it very well, most of my life I’ve been aware of proposed dualling then it getting shelved, the trouble is that we are reaching a point where it will have to be dualled, by this I mean slowly all the major pinch point on the trunk road network are getting dealt with, the A11 is done, the A30 through Devon into Cornwall is getting sorted, the A303 is due to be done as are parts of the A47........so the A64 is really standing out now....

As stated above the Hopgrove to Barton le willows section is looking promising now and the local MP and A64 growth partnership are pushing for the second section from Welburn to Malton so hopefully we can get the dualled section to Malton.

Year on year it’s becoming worse I think the A64 has also seen a massive rise in HGV traffic in the last year, in fact yesterday the amount of HGV’s seemed very similar to the A66 but just with far more cars as well, the 2017 AADT would be interesting to see.

Congestion on the Hopgrove to Malton section is far worse than it ever was, Yorkshire has really put itself to the world with the tour de Yorkshire and things like a Malton becoming the food capital of Yorkshire this has brought in more visitors which in turn brings added congestion, the A64 is now a massive barrier to the growth of the east coast and definitely needs action.

I also agree with the comment above about the section of older D2 around Barton Hill if the rest is new modern D2 this section will become worse, at present the Barton Hill junction improvement is ongoing this involves making the crossroads a staggered junction, it’s nearly complete but I’m not really sure it will help, it’s basically still going to be dangerous a bridge will be needed at that location once the rest of the A64 is improved.

The Hopgrove was crowned Yorkshire’s most congested junction in 2017 as it became congested over 1000 times in the year, this is caused by the lane drop east of Hopgrove which thankfully the local MP understands and has pushed for the dualling instead of the Hopgrove scheme and now the studies have backed this up.

[M19]

Does anyone consider alternative routes? The M62, A614, A165 seems a plausible alternative. From the north, going via the A174, avoiding the moors and A171 between Whitby and Scarborough might be another. A170? Avoid. It's not called the Blue Rinse Route for nothing.

As for the A64, just dual the lot and sort out Hopgrove instead of faffing about.

[NICK 647063]

Does anyone consider alternative routes? The M62, A614, A165 seems a plausible alternative. From the north, going via the A174, avoiding the moors and A171 between Whitby and Scarborough might be another. A170? Avoid. It's not called the Blue Rinse Route for nothing.

As for the A64, just dual the lot and sort out Hopgrove instead of faffing about.

To be fair many do avoid the A64, I know locals do, Highways England do put it on the matrix signs on both the A1 and M1 to warn of congestion but this really needs sorting, the long term needs to be to have an A64 thats fit for purpose!

I know the studies for the dualling are also looking at what traffic is avoiding the A64 and using other routes and would be likely to come back to the A64, having an improved A64 will not only make that road safer and quicker but also take traffic off many back roads around York, it will also take quite a bit of diverting traffic off the A166 in Stamford Bridge and also the A170, so the effects of this scheme will be far felt.

[Robert Kilcoyne]

Does anyone consider alternative routes? The M62, A614, A165 seems a plausible alternative. From the north, going via the A174, avoiding the moors and A171 between Whitby and Scarborough might be another. A170? Avoid. It's not called the Blue Rinse Route for nothing.

As for the A64, just dual the lot and sort out Hopgrove instead of faffing about.

Two words which explain why most drivers avoid the A170. Sutton Bank.

[KeithW]

Does anyone consider alternative routes? The M62, A614, A165 seems a plausible alternative. From the north, going via the A174, avoiding the moors and A171 between Whitby and Scarborough might be another. A170? Avoid. It's not called the Blue Rinse Route for nothing.

As for the A64, just dual the lot and sort out Hopgrove instead of faffing about.

All depends where you are starting from of course.

From the North I don't see how you can avoid the moors without heading down the A19 to York ! As someone who lives just off the A174 the only time I would use the coast road is when the A174 is closed by snow. By far the quickest route to Whitby and Scarborough is the A171 from Nunthorpe. The drag through Carlin How, Loftus and Easington on the A174 is downright depressing and the rest is slow. Once past Boulby its very difficult to overtake slower traffic. Personally I tend to avoid the Whitby/Hawsker section by going via Ruswarp and the B1416 but its not a route for the faint hearted or the caravanner.

The best alternative for the driver is via the B1257 from Stokesley to the A170 at Helmsley. This is a cracking road but not the fastest but is the route I would choose to Filey/Bridlington. If you want a really scenic alternative and the weather is good leave the A171 and crack south through Castleton with a stop at Blakey Ridge
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@54.38899 ... authuser=0

Watch the weather, folks have got stuck up their for days in a bad winter.

The main problems with the A170 are Sutton Bank at the western end and the congestion at the Scarborough end, if I were heading for Filey and points south I would take the A1039.

From the York area once they sort out Hopgrove the next priority should be dualling from Scragglethorpe and bypasses for Rillington and Staxton. Dualling the lot would be ideal but I doubt that its very high on the priority list for HE.

[KeithW]

Two words which explain why most drivers avoid the A170. Sutton Bank.

Cant see why personally, with modern cars getting up or down safely is hardly a problem. In the days when you had a heavy car with drum brakes and 50 hp on a good day it was more of an issue. Stay in low gear past the first bend and you have cracked it. There is at least one much more challenging hill in England and its a trunk road !

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@50.92802 ... authuser=0

[Rillington]

Thank you for all the responses.

I think the road should be dualled and the way to do it would be to revive the plans which were drawn up by the DfT in the early 1990s.

[jgharston]

There were concrete proposals in the early 1990s to dual the A64 east of Hop Grove but they were shelved. Is it time to finally dual the A64 to allow easier and safer road access to the North Yorkshire coast?

Yes yes yes yes and again yes.
The Claxton Gap and the High Hutton Gap are long long overdue for filling. The Claxton Gap can be done easily as almost all the required land take is within the highway curtilage and most can be done by building a second carrigeway alongside. The High Hutton Gap needs offline construction to address the bad bends, somebody on here proposed this.

There's no need to dual east of Malton, in essence the traffic splits in two at Malton so the A64 just needs to be a high-quality single carriageway. It needs a couple of bypasses, but on the whole a decent HQS will do.

Politically, the politicians in Scarborough will want the political kudos of a dual carriageway all the way to the Town Hall door, but engineeringly DC to Malton bypass and HQS to Scarb'.

[jgharston]

Does anyone consider alternative routes?

Most of my journeys are Sheffield-Whitby, but if I'm doing Sheffield-Scarborough I'll often go via M18, M62, A614, B1249. If I'm not pushed for time I travel between York and Whitby via the B1363 and Blakey Ridge, Egton Moor or Wheeldale Moor.

I once came over Blakey Ridge in winter and accidently hit the wrong lever and turned my lights off - it was as black as a black thing up there.

[Rillington]

The early 1990s proposals were for the York to Malton dualling to be along the existing route and improvements would have been made to the existing dualled section to reduce gradients. Some junctions would have been closed with the rest becoming "two-level unctions with sliproads". The cost estimate at 1991 prices was £58 million.

East of York, there would have been a new road from the end of the Malton bypass and the start of the Seamer bypass. It would have run parallel, to the south of the railway. There would have been two junctions - with the B1258 and north of Sherburn. There were also proposals for a brief spur for traffic heading to Filey which would have linked into the old A64 between Ganton and Staxton. This was described as a "possible link road". The introduction to the proposals said that the road would "supersede proposals for a Rillington bypass and a Staxton diversion." The cost estimate at 1992 prices were £37 million for the 14.5 mile road.

[Pontelad]

There were concrete proposals in the early 1990s to dual the A64 east of Hop Grove but they were shelved. Is it time to finally dual the A64 to allow easier and safer road access to the North Yorkshire coast?

Very definitely yes. About 30 years ago.

Having driven this route almost weekly for the last 28 years visiting the grandparents, I'd argue that it needs to be dualled at least as far as the Filey/Muston/Hunmanby turn off.

The route into Scarbados is pretty good from that point on.