When did A604 become A14?

[Ross Spur]

I'm looking at the M1 - A1 Link Road. The early sections in 1990 and 1991 were upgrades and bypasses of A604 but how were they numbered? Sections include:

1990 Thrapston and Cranford St John Bypass (November)
1991 all other sections apart from the following
1992 Brington - Spaldwick
1993 Ellington - Spittals Interchange
1994 Catthorpe Interchange - Rothwell

Also, was J4 Kettering Road Junction, Rothwell completed with the Rothwell to Kettering upgrade of June 1991?

Appreciate any help with how it was shown on maps at the time.

[ravenbluemoon]

I have a 1992 Philips road atlas that shows the opened sections as A604, if that helps?

[nowster]

It most probably was renumbered when the Catthorpe link was completed.

The present B645 was the A45 between Northampton and St Neots, then the A45 followed the current A428 to Cambridge, then the present A14 to the container ports.

[SouthWest Philip]

It most probably was renumbered when the Catthorpe link was completed.

The present B645 was the A45 between Northampton and St Neots, then the A45 followed the current A428 to Cambridge, then the present A14 to the container ports.

I'm pretty sure the Kettering bypass opened as A14, some time before the extension to Catthorpe and that, for a time this version of the A14 ended on the A604 at Huntingdon. The same section of the A604 that had previously been the A14 up to Alconbury!

I have, or had, contemporary maps to that effect but not readily accessible.

The renumbering of the whole A604/A45 route between Alconbury and Felixstow was concomitant with the extension to Catthorpe opening.

[nowster]

Talking of the Alconbury to A1(M) section under motorway regs. I wonder what legal number it has nowadays. It has variously been the A604(M) and the A14(M) in legislation.

It's really quiet nowadays, too.

[RichardA35]

<<Do you know when (and why) it was decided to extend the A604 all the way toHarwich? My theory is that it was intended as a sort of forerunner of the modern A14 - a strategic route linking the east coast with the Midlands.>>
My recollection is as follows:
We were working on the construction of the Kettering Bypass approx 1990 - 1992 and all the orders were in the name of A604 Catthorpe to Harwich Trunk Road with the entire project known as the M1-A1 link road.
Some months before we were due to finalise the signs contract (in about mid 1991) we were instructed that the whole road (including the stretches nearest to the M1 and at Huntingdon that hadn't been built yet) was to be named the A14.
There had presumably been some study somewhere to produce this strategy - perhaps a 3 number A road wasn't important enough for a strategic link?

The Kettering bypass opened with the A14 number. Sections to the east already built had the signs patched or replaced. Any later sections (e.g.west of Rothwell) were let and built as A14

[Chris Bertram]

<<Do you know when (and why) it was decided to extend the A604 all the way toHarwich? My theory is that it was intended as a sort of forerunner of the modern A14 - a strategic route linking the east coast with the Midlands.>>
My recollection is as follows:
We were working on the construction of the Kettering Bypass approx 1990 - 1992 and all the orders were in the name of A604 Catthorpe to Harwich Trunk Road with the entire project known as the M1-A1 link road.
Some months before we were due to finalise the signs contract (in about mid 1991) we were instructed that the whole road (including the stretches nearest to the M1 and at Huntingdon that hadn't been built yet) was to be named the A14.
There had presumably been some study somewhere to produce this strategy - perhaps a 3 number A road wasn't important enough for a strategic link?

The Kettering bypass opened with the A14 number. Sections to the east already built had the signs patched or replaced. Any later sections (e.g.west of Rothwell) were let and built as A14

Just as well that A14 had vacated its historic, rather less strategic route a few years earlier then.

[SouthWest Philip]

Just as well that A14 had vacated its historic, rather less strategic route a few years earlier then.

I'm not sure it did. I think the renumbering of the old route to A1198 happened at pretty much the same time as the number was assigned to the new route. Presumably for the sole purpose of giving the new route a consistent two digit number.

[Ross Spur]

<<Do you know when (and why) it was decided to extend the A604 all the way toHarwich? My theory is that it was intended as a sort of forerunner of the modern A14 - a strategic route linking the east coast with the Midlands.>>
My recollection is as follows:
We were working on the construction of the Kettering Bypass approx 1990 - 1992 and all the orders were in the name of A604 Catthorpe to Harwich Trunk Road with the entire project known as the M1-A1 link road.
Some months before we were due to finalise the signs contract (in about mid 1991) we were instructed that the whole road (including the stretches nearest to the M1 and at Huntingdon that hadn't been built yet) was to be named the A14.
There had presumably been some study somewhere to produce this strategy - perhaps a 3 number A road wasn't important enough for a strategic link?

The Kettering bypass opened with the A14 number. Sections to the east already built had the signs patched or replaced. Any later sections (e.g.west of Rothwell) were let and built as A14

Great, thanks for the first hand knowledge and remembering your post from 21 years ago.

Any thoughts on the Rothwell to Kettering section which upgraded the former A6? It opened in June 1991 per a Land Compensation Act notification (working back from the claim start date of 7 June 1992), which was prior to the Kettering Southern Bypass opening in November 1991. The LCA information just describes it as M1/A1 Link Road.

[Ruperts Trooper]

Just as well that A14 had vacated its historic, rather less strategic route a few years earlier then.

I'm not sure it did. I think the renumbering of the old route to A1198 happened at pretty much the same time as the number was assigned to the new route. Presumably for the sole purpose of giving the new route a consistent two digit number.

As a regular visitor to Huntingdon/St.Ives, I seem to recall that at one point the A604 and A14 swapped west of Huntingdon - so for a while the road from Spittals, Huntingdon to the A1 at Alconbury was the A604 having previously been the A14 - or maybe that was a signing anomaly.

[Ruperts Trooper]

<<Do you know when (and why) it was decided to extend the A604 all the way toHarwich? My theory is that it was intended as a sort of forerunner of the modern A14 - a strategic route linking the east coast with the Midlands.>>
My recollection is as follows:
We were working on the construction of the Kettering Bypass approx 1990 - 1992 and all the orders were in the name of A604 Catthorpe to Harwich Trunk Road with the entire project known as the M1-A1 link road.
Some months before we were due to finalise the signs contract (in about mid 1991) we were instructed that the whole road (including the stretches nearest to the M1 and at Huntingdon that hadn't been built yet) was to be named the A14.
There had presumably been some study somewhere to produce this strategy - perhaps a 3 number A road wasn't important enough for a strategic link?

The Kettering bypass opened with the A14 number. Sections to the east already built had the signs patched or replaced. Any later sections (e.g.west of Rothwell) were let and built as A14

Great, thanks for the first hand knowledge and remembering your post from 21 years ago.

Any thoughts on the Rothwell to Kettering section which upgraded the former A6? It opened in June 1991 per a Land Compensation Act notification (working back from the claim start date of 7 June 1992), which was prior to the Kettering Southern Bypass opening in November 1991. The LCA information just describes it as M1/A1 Link Road.

The dual carriageway between Kettering and Rothwell was opened as part of the A6 some years before the A14 as we know it now was built. I regularly travelled between Tamworth and St.Ives from '78 to '96 - initially via Lutterworth, Market Harborough, Rothwell, Kettering, Thrapston and Huntingdon although I paid little attention to road number changes in those days.

[Steven]

Just to completely add to the confusion...

The OS Travelmaster 1:250k sheet from 1993 shows A604 Rothwell - Thrapston; then A14 Thrapston - Brampton; A604 Brampton - Girton; then A45 east of there.

The "old" A14 is numbered A1198.

The 1:625k Sheet 1 (as in the Route Planning Map replacement) "correct to Jan 1993" shows the same situation.

[Ross Spur]

Has anybody got the OS 1:50000 Sheet 141 Kettering and Corby to check the situation?

Editions B (4/92) and B1 (12/93) would be relevant.

[Chris Bertram]

So the complementary question is when did A14 become A1198. Our wiki doesn't seem to have a date for that, other than "1980s".

[Steven]

Has anybody got the OS 1:50000 Sheet 141 Kettering and Corby to check the situation?

Editions B (4/92) and B1 (12/93) would be relevant.

B shows the A604 east of Kettering, with an A6 label shown at Rothwell.

B1 shows entirely A14.

So the complementary question is when did A14 become A1198. Our wiki doesn't seem to have a date for that, other than "1980s".

Sheet 153 revision A/*/*/*/* (April 1988) shows A604 and A14. Revision B (March 1992) shows A604 and A1198. Revision B1 (July 1994) shows A14 west of Huntingdon, A604 as a single route from A1 to the edge of the sheet, and A1198.

Sheet 154 Revision B1 (June 1994) agrees - A604 from the west edge of the sheet to Girton, A45 east of there.

[RichardA35]

The Kettering bypass opened with the A14 number. Sections to the east already built had the signs patched or replaced. Any later sections (e.g.west of Rothwell) were let and built as A14

Great, thanks for the first hand knowledge and remembering your post from 21 years ago.

Any thoughts on the Rothwell to Kettering section which upgraded the former A6? It opened in June 1991 per a Land Compensation Act notification (working back from the claim start date of 7 June 1992), which was prior to the Kettering Southern Bypass opening in November 1991. The LCA information just describes it as M1/A1 Link Road.

The dual carriageway between Kettering and Rothwell was opened as part of the A6 some years before the A14 as we know it now was built. I regularly travelled between Tamworth and St.Ives from '78 to '96 - initially via Lutterworth, Market Harborough, Rothwell, Kettering, Thrapston and Huntingdon although I paid little attention to road number changes in those days.

I'd disagree that the short Rothwell section was "some years" before the Kettering Bypass opened. When we started the works I was involved in detailing up the temporary diversions of the A6 outside the cemetery which involved building the northern part of the interchange for a large BT diversion (48way duct rings a bell for some reason) which was in early 1990.
We had liaison meetings with the A6 contractor who were well underway during 1990 building underpasses in two halves, so I would agree with the mid 1991 opening date noted above. As regards numbering I think the Rothwell section had signs covered when opened (eastbound at least) with provision for the Kettering Northern Bypass included and the A14 number may have been patched but I can't remember.

As we have seen from the time line though, this was still "some years before the A14 as we know it now was built" west of Rothwell to the M6.

[Alderpoint]

Just as well that A14 had vacated its historic, rather less strategic route a few years earlier then.

I'm not sure it did. I think the renumbering of the old route to A1198 happened at pretty much the same time as the number was assigned to the new route. Presumably for the sole purpose of giving the new route a consistent two digit number.

They could have just used the A45 number. Okay they would have had to renumber the bit of the A45 through to Higham Ferres, but it would have saved them renumbering the whole of the A45 between Cambridge and Felixstowe and the old A14.

[nowster]

And the legislation which mentions the Alconbury motorway:

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/199 ... tents/made (A604(M))
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/201 ... tents/made (A14(M))

It's notable that the SIs for constructing the A1-M1 link still referred to the A604 at both ends in 1990:

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/199 ... tents/made
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/199 ... tents/made

[RichardA35]

It's notable that the SIs for constructing the A1-M1 link still referred to the A604 at both ends in 1990:

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/199 ... tents/made
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/199 ... tents/made

Well not really notable. As I said 21 years ago, the decision to renumber to A14 was made in 1991 so orders before that date would reflect the numbering strategy in force at the time.

[Ross Spur]

Has anybody got the OS 1:50000 Sheet 141 Kettering and Corby to check the situation?

Editions B (4/92) and B1 (12/93) would be relevant.

B shows the A604 east of Kettering, with an A6 label shown at Rothwell.
B1 shows entirely A14.

Thanks for the OS timeline.