Road Infrastructure Things Worth Visiting

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Norfolktolancashire
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Re: Road Infrastructure Things Worth Visiting

Post by Norfolktolancashire »

JamesA44 wrote: Tue Jul 21, 2020 11:38

Finally, a bit further down, the split-level section of the M5 between 19 and 20 is also a feat worth seeing - in both directions.
Worth having a drive down the country roads next to this stretch, there's some great views of the M5 viaducts over the woods

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.45339 ... 384!8i8192
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the cheesecake man
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Re: Road Infrastructure Things Worth Visiting

Post by the cheesecake man »

The M6 southbound to M55 bridge always strikes me as unusually elegant for a functional structure.
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hoagy_ytfc
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Re: Road Infrastructure Things Worth Visiting

Post by hoagy_ytfc »

ravenbluemoon wrote: Wed Jul 22, 2020 22:38 [
I had to check to see what that turntable ferry was - a fascinating design.
I'm _just_ too young to have used it, but the Aust Ferry across the Severn was also a turntable design.

The ferry currently doing that Skye run was crossing the mouth of Loch Leven when I was a kid and we were up there for a holiday. Never got to ride it as the queue was always too long, so we did the round trip via Kinlochleven.

I was _very_ pleasantly surprised to see that boat when I turned up at Glenelg in 2014 (forty-something years after the first holiday) to see that same boat in service there and looking so fine.
DSC01084.jpeg
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hoagy_ytfc
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Re: Road Infrastructure Things Worth Visiting

Post by hoagy_ytfc »

When I say "currently", that was an assumption I can't really make - I mean it was there on my last visit in 2014
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Re: Road Infrastructure Things Worth Visiting

Post by ravenbluemoon »

She's looking in fine fettle! The Black Isle ferry is/was more integrated into the deck - it could only carry two vehicles anyway. I'm guessing with an overhanging design like that, some skill needs to be had in not putting a fully laden Transit on one side and an old Mini on the other!

EDIT: She's been replaced by a larger ferry, and is now plying her trade in the Bristol Channel: Cromarty Rose
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Re: Road Infrastructure Things Worth Visiting

Post by Nader »

I'll often detour to go and visit the Hindhead Tunnel, a great piece of engineering and one of those rare new roads that satisfied (almost) everyone. Once you travel through it, you can then go into Hindhead itself and take a walk around the Devil's punchbowl, including walking the route that the old A3 used to take. And if you are travelling with someone who doesn't appreciate a good tunnel, you can sell it to them based on the lovely walk :laugh:
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Halmyre
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Re: Road Infrastructure Things Worth Visiting

Post by Halmyre »

hoagy_ytfc wrote: Tue Aug 04, 2020 23:43
ravenbluemoon wrote: Wed Jul 22, 2020 22:38 [
I had to check to see what that turntable ferry was - a fascinating design.
I'm _just_ too young to have used it, but the Aust Ferry across the Severn was also a turntable design.

The ferry currently doing that Skye run was crossing the mouth of Loch Leven when I was a kid and we were up there for a holiday. Never got to ride it as the queue was always too long, so we did the round trip via Kinlochleven.

I was _very_ pleasantly surprised to see that boat when I turned up at Glenelg in 2014 (forty-something years after the first holiday) to see that same boat in service there and looking so fine.

DSC01084.jpeg
The Aust Ferry, like the Black Isle ferry, used a turntable to facilitate getting vehicles on and off the ferry. The Glenelg Ferry, like many other Highland ferries, has the whole deck on a turntable, and as far as I know these types of ferries were never used anywhere else outside the Highlands.

We did use the Ballachulish (Loch Leven) ferry when I was young. Mum, dad, me and my brother and sister, in an Austin 1100, suitcases lashed to a roof rack, en-route to a caravan in Drumbuie, between Plockton and Kyle of Lochalsh, some time in the early 1970s. The new ferries, Lochalsh and Kyleakin, were both operating between Kyle and Skye, so it must have been 1971 or later. On the way back I think my dad took the scenic route round by Kinlochleven.

Some 40 years later we crossed from Kylerhea to Glenelg on what may have been the same ferry - there were three in use up until the service ceased in 1975. I hope it's still there in another 40 years, and if I'm still around maybe get to use it.
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Re: Road Infrastructure Things Worth Visiting

Post by PaulLothian »

Since ferries seem to be accepted as road infrastructure in this thread...
I always enjoy the Corran Ferry, usually operated by a rather ungainly looking double-ended vessel with ramps set at 45 degrees on the seaward side of the bow and stern (and I am not at all clear which is which!). If you are among the first few vehicles on, you will be parked just behind the ramp. On a smooth crossing with little tidal flow through the narrows, this means you set off (if sitting in your car as most people do) apparently at 45 degrees. It gets much more interesting with strong winds or big tides, when you can be pointing in any direction from sideways to straight ahead as you crab across. It's a very short crossing, but great fun!
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Re: Road Infrastructure Things Worth Visiting

Post by Al__S »

if we're insisting on including ferries as part of roads, the three large parallel chain ferries crossing the Tamar from Torpoint to Devonport on the A374 are pretty special. I'm unaware of any other parallel operations like it.
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Re: Road Infrastructure Things Worth Visiting

Post by Chris Bertram »

Then there are the Dartmouth ferries - the lower one being pontoon and tug, the higher one being a cable ferry (floating bridge).

For the only (I think) inland ferry across a lake, there's the Windermere ferry, also a floating bridge affair.
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Re: Road Infrastructure Things Worth Visiting

Post by hoagy_ytfc »

Chris Bertram wrote: Wed Aug 05, 2020 10:34 Then there are the Dartmouth ferries - the lower one being pontoon and tug, the higher one being a cable ferry (floating bridge).

For the only (I think) inland ferry across a lake, there's the Windermere ferry, also a floating bridge affair.
I love using the pontoon one.

Also a couple of nice vehicle ferries in Cornwall. The King Harry Ferry (chain) upriver from Falmouth, and Bodinnick-Fowey (a "proper" boat, not a chain ferry). That one whizzes across.
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Re: Road Infrastructure Things Worth Visiting

Post by Bryn666 »

Virtually the whole of South Wales is worth a detour, you've got urban motorways, rail to road conversions through densely packed valleys, the roads over the valleys being akin to Alpine passes, tunnels, lane control, and the Severn Bridges.

Not bad going really is it.
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Re: Road Infrastructure Things Worth Visiting

Post by Marzo »

The Severn Bridge is a lovely walk if the weather is kind, but for an unusual view there is a public footpath crossing the motorway on a bridge which used to run above the toll booths (now gone, of course). And I can recommend the Mersey Tunnel tour. At one point they let you out into the tunnel with traffic passing just the other side of the barrier. As an aside, though, the other members of our party all went down with respiratory ailments soon after which they blamed on the extract fan spreading bugs around in an enclosed space. (Just pre-CoViD19.)
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Re: Road Infrastructure Things Worth Visiting

Post by Marzo »

Forgot to say - you CAN still legally go around the outside of the former Severn View Services building. It's all part of the same public footpath which crosses the M48 and it forms part of the Severn Way, which we walked in sections from source to Bristol over about a year.
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the cheesecake man
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Re: Road Infrastructure Things Worth Visiting

Post by the cheesecake man »

The M18/M62 junction is another spot with plenty of sweeping curves and woa!
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Re: Road Infrastructure Things Worth Visiting

Post by SteveA30 »

All of the above. Also, Brighton bypass, with its tunnel and sweeping curves up and down the many hills, freeflow throughout. A shining example of how to build a bypass that works.

Cumberland Basin in Bristol. Flowing serenely at 40mph across the river and down the A370 to the new Link road to the A38, with its dedicated s/bnd left turn off the A370, whilst traffic queues before and after the Basin at signalled junctions. Even the Mayors plan to replace it is good, because it still utilises the southern half of it. Only the Basin bridge bit will be removed. Shame from an engineering point of view though. It is very low and unobtrusive within the landscape.
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Re: Road Infrastructure Things Worth Visiting

Post by owen b »

A couple more web pages with excellent photos and some write up of the Aust Ferry from the past and more recent photos of its remains :
https://klempner69.smugmug.com/Aust-Fer ... b-Dylans-/
http://shop.simonlewis.com/blog/2019/08 ... erry-1966/
My favourite photos are of cars queuing up to board the ferry with the virtually complete Severn Bridge in the background.
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Re: Road Infrastructure Things Worth Visiting

Post by roadtester »

c2R wrote: Mon Jul 20, 2020 15:39 Many bridges are fascinating.... The Britannia Bridge for example, with it's railway deck and giant lion statues. You can also tick off the Menai Suspension Bridge and Lanfair PG railway station with it's long name at the same time.
A favourite of mine as well - was lucky enough to do it + Menai again during September before the latest round of lock-downery started up.

Also, other sections of the A55 where they used similar ingenuity to adapt old infrastructure to provide two lanes of traffic in each direction at Penmaenmawr and Pen-y-clip.

I suppose, as in the case of the bridge, these quirks may be upgraded away one day to the benefit of capacity/speeds/flow, but it's great to enjoy them while they still form part of the main route.
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Re: Road Infrastructure Things Worth Visiting

Post by fras »

PeterA5145 wrote: Mon Jul 20, 2020 12:08 The M60 running through Stockport town centre and under the arches of the railway viaduct must be one of the most memorable sights on the network.

Plus, while you're in Stockport, Wellington Road North and South, the current course of the A6, which was one of the first bypasses in Britain, and has a long multi-arch brick viaduct over the valley of the Mersey.

Barton Bridge carrying the M60 over the Manchester Ship Canal, and the adjacent new lift bridge, are also well worth a look.
Any of the swing bridges over the MSC are worth a look. I'm not sure if it is still the case, but these were all operated hydraulically with an hydraulic accumulator in a tower nearby to provide for quick opening. Of course it is very rare to see one of these opened as the canal is almost devoid of ships now. There was a coaster based in Arklow, RoI, that used to go up to Salford regularly. I have seen it both on the canal and at Arklow !
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Re: Road Infrastructure Things Worth Visiting

Post by fras »

roadtester wrote: Sat Dec 26, 2020 10:40
c2R wrote: Mon Jul 20, 2020 15:39 Many bridges are fascinating.... The Britannia Bridge for example, with it's railway deck and giant lion statues. You can also tick off the Menai Suspension Bridge and Lanfair PG railway station with it's long name at the same time.
A favourite of mine as well - was lucky enough to do it + Menai again during September before the latest round of lock-downery started up.

Also, other sections of the A55 where they used similar ingenuity to adapt old infrastructure to provide two lanes of traffic in each direction at Penmaenmawr and Pen-y-clip.

I suppose, as in the case of the bridge, these quirks may be upgraded away one day to the benefit of capacity/speeds/flow, but it's great to enjoy them while they still form part of the main route.
It is very obvious that improvements to the existing road were underway before the very recent tunnels, (1930s, I believe), and these were based on a single carriageway. I have been this way many times, as my daughter attended Bangor University. Of the two tunnels, the one at Penmaenbach is more interesting, as one can see the old road going off to the left that is now a foot/cycleway.
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@53.28779 ... 8192?hl=en
At Penmaenmawr, there are two much shorter tunnels, and a rather narrow footway.
The interesting bit about these road tunnels is that they were built when the old suspension bridge over the river Conwy was still the only bridge until 1958. This must have, on its own, restricted the size of goods vehicles using the road, (as would the town gates of Conwy). My father took a 3-tonner over the suspension bridge in early 1944 as part of his RAF driving test. If one is in the area, just go and have a look at the Telford bridge and the very sharp bend where it abuts to the castle rock face.
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