A172
A172 | |||||||
Location Map ( geo) | |||||||
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From: | Ingleby Arncliffe (SE444992) | ||||||
To: | Middlesbrough (NZ503200) | ||||||
Distance: | 16.7 miles (26.9 km) | ||||||
Meets: | A19, A173, A1043, A174, A1085, A66 | ||||||
Old route now: | B1365 | ||||||
Primary Destinations | |||||||
Highway Authorities | |||||||
Traditional Counties | |||||||
Route outline (key) | |||||||
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Route
The A172 was improved in the late 1960s/ early 1970s as a general purpose S2 road with generally good site lines, and bypasses. The only one of any note is Stokesley.
The other thing to note is the original road formed the boundary of the North Yorkshire National Park. Providing traffic is light then NSL can easily be achieved along large parts of the road. Before the A19 and A174 were rebuilt in the mid 1970s it was the main road linking Middlesbrough and the eastern part of the Teesside conurbation with most of the country.
Ingleby Arncliffe - Middlesbrough
The A172 starts at a GSJ on the A19 by the landmark Cleveland Tontine Inn, which originally stood in the fork between the two roads. The road heads northeastwards, largely along an improved alignment, although the old road is still clearly visible.
The old road through Stokesley is now the B1365; the current bypass has a few roundabouts, at one of which the A173 is met. A couple of roundabouts later the road reaches the edge of the Teesside conurbation, initially as a bypass for Nunthorpe. This was originally a village, but is now a housing estate for Middlesbrough. The other part of the bypass is the A1043, a road nothing more than a link between the A171 and A172 with a terminal roundabout and no other access. This road carries all the traffic between the A19 and Whitby, handing it to the A172 as it passes Nunthorpe to reach the A174, crossed at a diamond interchange.
At this junction the A172 loses primary status and becomes a sub-urban road, passing first through the village of Marton, birthplace of Captain Cook. The road then becomes Marton Road, the name it keeps all the way into Middlesbrough. As the road become more urban it is remarkably light on direct housing with generally larger properties often set back from the road, until well into Middlesbrough.
The road used to have a short multiplex with the A1085 on the southern edge of the town centre, but now the A1085 terminates on the A172. Originally the road ran the full length of Marton Road, meeting the A171 (North Ormesby Road) and A176 (Corporation Road) before terminating on the A178 on Exchange Square in the late-Victorian centre of Middlesbrough. Various new roads and traffic schemes over the last 30 years have seen the A172 moved about, but it has survived, unlike most of the other classified road in central Middlesbrough. In now terminates at a GSJ with the A66 to the east of central Middlesbrough.
Original Author(s): jonny mo