M6 J42 - Roman Road

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shampooefficient
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M6 J42 - Roman Road

Post by shampooefficient »

Recent visit to Carlisle-ish - ended up finding what is clearly the old A6 route at Roman Road.

Just wondering when it was changed and how? It appears to my untrained eye that they dumped a load of spoil on one side of the old carriageway as the cats eyes just run into what is now a bank...
SteelCamel
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Re: M6 J42 - Roman Road

Post by SteelCamel »

If you look at the 7th series map on SABRE maps it's pretty clear what's changed. The original junction is a staggered junction here - the road on the right, now the services entrance, was the B6263. The road on the left is the unclassified road towards Durdar.
The dual-carriageway north of the junction is completely new. I'd guess that the southern bridge of the roundabout was built first and the A6 diverted onto it, then the northern bridge and slip roads built over the old road. The B6263 has a short new stretch diverting it to the roundabout. Unusually it's the unclassified road which seems to have the biggest change, with a new route starting back west of the railway, and a new railway bridge, replacing the bendy original route with one long sweeping curve.
The stubs of the old roads have mostly been kept as access roads. In this case it looks like they've done a minimal amount of work and put in a new kerb line, but the road clearly hasn't been resurfaced since the junction was built.
As for when - Roads.org.uk says this stretch of the M6 opened in Dec 1970. If I'm correct in assuming that the A6 was diverted early in the works, it would be in the late 60s.
Oh, and the road is misnamed - the OS map clearly shows that the course of the Roman road is to the west of the old A6 here. So Roman Road is not a Roman road!
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Steven
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Re: M6 J42 - Roman Road

Post by Steven »

SABRE Maps 1969 One Inch layer and SABRE Maps 1971 One Inch layer are either side of the M6 construction so should help to answer the question.
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wrinkly
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Re: M6 J42 - Roman Road

Post by wrinkly »

Steven wrote: Sun Jul 03, 2022 14:05 SABRE Maps 1969 One Inch layer and SABRE Maps 1971 One Inch layer are either side of the M6 construction so should help to answer the question.
The 1971 map omits the south-facing M6 slip roads but I don't doubt they were opened in 1971 along with the rest of the J41-42 section.

SABRE Maps also, of course, has an old 1:25000 layer, and can do overlays with a present-day map.
shampooefficient
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Re: M6 J42 - Roman Road

Post by shampooefficient »

Probably the only thing I didn't look at was the old maps. Partly because I am on my clunky phone and mainly because I'm an idiot.

Thank you! Will have a look later.
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