Asymmetrical lane drops

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BOH
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Re: Asymmetrical lane drops

Post by BOH »

BOH wrote: Mon Aug 17, 2020 08:42
Brenley Corner wrote: Wed Aug 12, 2020 08:49 I'm surprised that no-one has mentioned the infamous A31 where it multiplexes with the A338 near Ringwood.

- Eastbound 4 lanes between A338 junctions
- Westbound 2 lanes only widening to 4 lanes after river bridges

Tony
On our local FB page there is a warning that lane closures are happening at off-peak / overnight soon for bore holes to be drilled as preparation for the widening starting soon. Will be chaos when that work finally starts.
jabbaboy
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Re: Asymmetrical lane drops

Post by jabbaboy »

A1(M) at Leeming Bar (stupid one - still think it's like that anyway).
A1(M) at A1 / A194(M) split

both drop to 2 lanes northbound, stay 3 lanes southbound.

There's the 3 crawler lanes between Durham and Darlington aswell.
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KeithW
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Re: Asymmetrical lane drops

Post by KeithW »

jabbaboy wrote: Mon Aug 17, 2020 10:32 A1(M) at Leeming Bar (stupid one - still think it's like that anyway).
A1(M) at A1 / A194(M) split

both drop to 2 lanes northbound, stay 3 lanes southbound.

There's the 3 crawler lanes between Durham and Darlington aswell.
Well given that the A1(M) at Leeming Bar carries an AADF of less than 50k that's hardly a problem, in fact the usual impression I get when driving it is of how little traffic is on it. The main reason for the configuration is handling the Scotch Corner Interchange which like Topsy keeps on growing, between the old A1/LAR (A6055) , the new A1(M) and the interchange there just isn't much room to play with without yet another complete rebuild which given that there is a service area to the east and the hotel to the west would be interesting and expensive.

As for the Durham/Darlington bypasses it made perfect sense when it was designed and built over 50 years ago. At that time the section with the crawler lanes was really needed, many cars struggled to maintain 70 up the hill let alone trucks. There was often a line of heavy trucks in lanes 1 and 2. A typical family car at the time would have been an Austin A40 or Ford Anglia 105E, cars which on a good day could hit 70 mph flat out with the wind behind them but not for very long unless you wanted to throw a rod or burn out a big end bearing. A typical truck would have around 100 hp on tap and by the time it hit the top of the incline the driver would be pretty far down the gears.

When the Durham bypass opened the A1 continued on through Gateshead and Newcastle along what is now the A167, the Team valley where the Western Bypass runs was an Industrial Estate, indeed for a time the A194(M) and A194 to the Tyne Tunnel actually was redesignated the A1(M)/A1. With just a single tunnel it was often a better option than the Tyne Bridge.

To give a flavour of that era this is a rather nice picture of the just opened newly improved A1 at Leeming in 1961 when there were around 6 million cars in the UK.
https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/histo ... /#gallery9
jabbaboy
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Re: Asymmetrical lane drops

Post by jabbaboy »

KeithW wrote: Mon Aug 17, 2020 13:12
jabbaboy wrote: Mon Aug 17, 2020 10:32 A1(M) at Leeming Bar (stupid one - still think it's like that anyway).
A1(M) at A1 / A194(M) split

both drop to 2 lanes northbound, stay 3 lanes southbound.

There's the 3 crawler lanes between Durham and Darlington aswell.
Well given that the A1(M) at Leeming Bar carries an AADF of less than 50k that's hardly a problem, in fact the usual impression I get when driving it is of how little traffic is on it. The main reason for the configuration is handling the Scotch Corner Interchange which like Topsy keeps on growing, between the old A1/LAR (A6055) , the new A1(M) and the interchange there just isn't much room to play with without yet another complete rebuild which given that there is a service area to the east and the hotel to the west would be interesting and expensive.

As for the Durham/Darlington bypasses it made perfect sense when it was designed and built over 50 years ago. At that time the section with the crawler lanes was really needed, many cars struggled to maintain 70 up the hill let alone trucks. There was often a line of heavy trucks in lanes 1 and 2. A typical family car at the time would have been an Austin A40 or Ford Anglia 105E, cars which on a good day could hit 70 mph flat out with the wind behind them but not for very long unless you wanted to throw a rod or burn out a big end bearing. A typical truck would have around 100 hp on tap and by the time it hit the top of the incline the driver would be pretty far down the gears.

When the Durham bypass opened the A1 continued on through Gateshead and Newcastle along what is now the A167, the Team valley where the Western Bypass runs was an Industrial Estate, indeed for a time the A194(M) and A194 to the Tyne Tunnel actually was redesignated the A1(M)/A1. With just a single tunnel it was often a better option than the Tyne Bridge.

To give a flavour of that era this is a rather nice picture of the just opened newly improved A1 at Leeming in 1961 when there were around 6 million cars in the UK.
https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/histo ... /#gallery9
Ah I didn't mean Scotch Corner, the lane drop there makes total sense. I was talking about the one at Leeming Bar northbound - https://goo.gl/maps/GsKbF3iWKniT9Mkv8 which is literally burning some lines off and repainting them.

Aren't 2 of the crawler lanes on the A1(M) reletively new (last 15 year) though, I can remember the one southbound before J61 definitely being built, sure one of the Durham ones is aswell.

Enjoyed the photos though :)
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Chris Bertram
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Re: Asymmetrical lane drops

Post by Chris Bertram »

jabbaboy wrote: Mon Aug 17, 2020 14:51 Aren't 2 of the crawler lanes on the A1(M) reletively new (last 15 year) though, I can remember the one southbound before J61 definitely being built, sure one of the Durham ones is aswell.

Enjoyed the photos though :)
Those crawler lanes are definitely not original to the motorway. Last 15 years sounds about right.
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Bryn666
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Re: Asymmetrical lane drops

Post by Bryn666 »

KeithW wrote: Mon Aug 17, 2020 13:12
jabbaboy wrote: Mon Aug 17, 2020 10:32 A1(M) at Leeming Bar (stupid one - still think it's like that anyway).
A1(M) at A1 / A194(M) split

both drop to 2 lanes northbound, stay 3 lanes southbound.

There's the 3 crawler lanes between Durham and Darlington aswell.
Well given that the A1(M) at Leeming Bar carries an AADF of less than 50k that's hardly a problem, in fact the usual impression I get when driving it is of how little traffic is on it. The main reason for the configuration is handling the Scotch Corner Interchange which like Topsy keeps on growing, between the old A1/LAR (A6055) , the new A1(M) and the interchange there just isn't much room to play with without yet another complete rebuild which given that there is a service area to the east and the hotel to the west would be interesting and expensive.
The lane drop at Leeming Bar makes no sense, 33% of the traffic does not exit onto the A684 here. Unlike Scotch Corner where there is a justification for a lane drop given it is both a strategic junction and has a lot of turning traffic. The only reason Leeming was a lane drop was because it was a temporary terminus, but that never stopped all the other A1(M) terminii from being a right hand lane closure beyond the exit slip road. HE did a bad design and rather than just admit it, they've done mental gymnastics to keep it even though they resurfaced the junction and had promised MPs they'd remove the lane drop.
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KeithW
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Re: Asymmetrical lane drops

Post by KeithW »

jabbaboy wrote: Mon Aug 17, 2020 14:51

Ah I didn't mean Scotch Corner, the lane drop there makes total sense. I was talking about the one at Leeming Bar northbound - https://goo.gl/maps/GsKbF3iWKniT9Mkv8 which is literally burning some lines off and repainting them.

Aren't 2 of the crawler lanes on the A1(M) reletively new (last 15 year) though, I can remember the one southbound before J61 definitely being built, sure one of the Durham ones is aswell.

Enjoyed the photos though :)
Well I recall crawler lanes northbound long before that, my typical route north to Scotland in the 1970's was the A689 from Wolviston to J60 and and then North to Chester Le Street before heading west to pick up the A68 near Consett, the crawler lane northbound after J61 here was definitely there and well used.
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@54.77047 ... 312!8i6656


The southbound may be later but having lived out of the are from 1980 to 2016 couldnt say exactly when. I suspect it was after the Western bypass and Metro centre opened as they produced a lot of extra traffic.

Leeming I think was to make the traffic flow smoother on the merge after the flyover, a large number of distribution depots have opened at Leeming Bar which used to be a rather minor junction in the late 1970's
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Re: Asymmetrical lane drops

Post by J6onM27 »

Work is about to commence, https://highwaysengland.co.uk/our-work/ ... -widening/
BOH wrote: Mon Aug 17, 2020 08:42
Brenley Corner wrote: Wed Aug 12, 2020 08:49 I'm surprised that no-one has mentioned the infamous A31 where it multiplexes with the A338 near Ringwood.

- Eastbound 4 lanes between A338 junctions
- Westbound 2 lanes only widening to 4 lanes after river bridges

Tony
On our local FB page there is a warning that lane closures there are happening at off-peak / overnight soon for bore holes to be drilled as preparation for the widening starting soon. Will be chaos when that work finally starts.
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