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A184

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A184
Location Map ( geo)
Cameraicon.png View gallery (8)
From:  Dunston (NZ232613)
To:  Sunderland (NZ389601)
Distance:  11.3 miles (18.2 km)
Meets:  A1, A1114, A189, B1426, A167, A185, A195, B1288, A194(M), A194, A19, B1298, B1299, A1018
Former Number(s):  A6083, A6115, A1
Old route now:  B1426
Primary Destinations
Highway Authorities

National Highways • Gateshead • South Tyneside • Sunderland

Traditional Counties

Durham

Route outline (key)
A184 Newcastle - Gateshead
A184 Dunston - Boldon
A184 Boldon - Sunderland

The A184 is a major east-west route in North-East England, with part of its course forming the main artery between the region's two largest cities - Newcastle and Sunderland - although it doesn't quite reach the centre of either.

Route

Dunston - Heworth

The road starts at Gateshead Quays Interchange, a large grade separated junction on the A1 Western bypass, in Dunston on the western edge of Gateshead. It runs north-east as a fast dual carriageway through Teams, passing through a junction with the A1114, up to the Redheugh Bridge approach road. There is a grade separated roundabout interchange at the southern end of the bridge and the A184 TOTSOs, with the route over the bridge being the A189. Quite often the bridge is closed due to high winds, so large matrix signs are in place to warn of any problems. The A184 turns right at the roundabout to run along Askew Road towards central Gateshead.

At a large crossroads the A184 turns right to pass to the west and south of the town centre. The route of the A184 through Gateshead has been changed substantially in the twenty-first century; see the history section. After leaving Askew Road the A184 runs up a steep hill, past Gateshead bus station on the left, then turns left at a large roundabout near the civic centre. This area has been substantially redeveloped and is now, following the demolition of various buildings, much more open than it used to be. The road crosses West Street and High Street, both of which have at some stage carried the A1 but are now unclassified. Past West Street the road narrows to a single carriageway; the main shopping area of Gateshead is just to the north.

The road then reaches a roundabout underneath the A167 Gateshead Highway, which is raised on a high concrete flyover. This flyover was once intended to continue onto a motorway bridge across the Tyne, but neither the bridge nor the motorway was ever built. The northern arm of the roundabout appears as the A184 on some roadsigns but in fact it is part of the A167 as it merges with the end of the Gateshead Highway a short distance to the north. The A184 continues straight ahead onto the Felling Bypass which, for a number of miles, forms the route of the worlds biggest half-marathon, the Great North Run. The athletics connection continues as the road soon passes Gateshead International Stadium. The A184 continues as an urban dual carriageway, with numerous sets of traffic lights, up to the junction at Heworth where it meets the A185 and B1426.

Heworth - Sunderland

Heworth Roundabout, in its pre-2018 guise

The Heworth junction is a large traffic light controlled crossroads which is often a focus of congestion, particularly in the morning and evening peak. In 2018 this layout replaced a roundabout on the same site, providing some filter lanes and more space for turning movements. The area of the junction is constrained by the proximity of the railway station and church, making any further improvements to the layout unlikely. Past Heworth the character of the road changes, as it opens out into a grade separated dual carriageway. It goes through an elongated interchange with the A195 at Wardley before reaching White Mare Pool Interchange at the northern end of the A194(M). It's here that the route of the Great North Run leaves the A184, as it turns north along the A194 towards South Shields. The A184 flyover narrows to a single lane eastbound to enable a lane gain from the junction, as it is joined by the trunk road from the A1(M) to the Tyne Tunnel.

There follows a short stretch of rural dual carriageway, which ends at Testo's Roundabout on the A19. This was the last remaining at-grade junction on the A19 between Thirsk and Northumberland, until the completion of a flyover for the A19 in 2021. The A184 loses primary status at Testo's and becomes single-carriageway shortly afterwards, passing through another roundabout at Boldon Business Park before entering West Boldon. The road quickly assumes a distinctly urban character as it forms the main road through the centre of the village, continuing seamlessly into East Boldon. It meets the end of the B1299 which passes East Boldon Metro station on its way towards Cleadon and the coast, then leaving Boldon behind the A184 runs dead straight past the Sunderland greyhound stadium, which despite its name is actually just outside the city boundary, before coming to an end at a roundabout on the A1018 (former A19).

History

Although the modern A184 is entirely south of the Tyne, this was not always the case. When originally classified, it started at Grey's Monument in the centre of Newcastle where it met the A696 Blackett Street and A6086 Grainger Street. From here it ran down Grey Street and Dean Street, then zigzagged down Side before crossing the Tyne on the Swing Bridge. It then climbed up Bottle Bank and ran along Gateshead High Street - crossing its modern-day alignment - before turning left onto Sunderland Road, which it followed through Felling and Heworth before returning to its modern alignment near Wardley. When the A1 was re-routed onto the Tyne Bridge following its opening in 1928, it took over the A184's route along Gateshead High Street and left the section north of the Tyne and across the Swing Bridge out of zone. This section was renumbered as the A6126 and the A184 was cut back to start in Gateshead at the junction of High Street and Sunderland Road.

The A184 was moved onto the newly opened Felling bypass in 1959 and Sunderland Road was downgraded to become the B1426. The opening of the Tyne Tunnel in 1967, coupled with the arrival of the A194(M) at White Mare Pool in 1970, resulted in the road between White Mare Pool and the then A108 at Testo's being substantially improved, straightening bends and bypassing frontages. The upgraded road opened in November 1969. This section subsequently became part of the A1 when it was rerouted to go through the Tyne Tunnel in 1977. The A184 was therefore truncated to start at Testo's, retaining only around half of its original length, while to the west it was renumbered A6115. As with several of the renumberings in the area, this change was undone when the A1 was moved to the western bypass in the 1990s. The A184 was extended further west to meet the new route of the A1 at Dunston, taking over the route of the A6083 - albeit substantially upgraded - which was now entirely east of the A1 and therefore out of zone.

More recent changes in Central Gateshead have taken place in the twenty-first century. Where the A184 currently leaves Askew Road at a cross-roads to detour around the edge of Gateshead, crossing the A167 at Eastgate Roundabout, it previously headed straight east along Askew Road to meet the A167 at a complex traffic light controlled junction at the south end of the Tyne Bridge. Prior to 2000, it was possible along this route to head north from the A184 into Newcastle over the High Level Bridge; however this is now a southbound-only bus lane having previously been closed to all traffic for eight years. Until 2020, the A184 had a short multiplex after the crossroads with the A167 which was sufficiently traumatic to earn an entry in Roads.org's Bad Junctions.[1] East-West traffic on the had to TOTSO twice to remain on the A184. A notable feature of the junction was that traffic heading south over the Tyne Bridge and then west on the A184 - a fairly substantial flow as this was the main route from the east of Newcastle to the A1 - had to pass through the crossroads twice. Right turns were prohibited from the A167 onto the A184, so westbound traffic passed straight ahead through the lights and then almost immediately turned off to the left, looping around 270 degrees to meet the crossroads again to go straight ahead onto Askew Road. While perhaps a little slow for traffic making that move, it was a relatively neat solution to a difficult junction with no space for a roundabout. The rerouting of the A184 around Gateshead city centre changed all this, and the 270 degree loop is no longer open to traffic. The section of Askew Road between the A184 and the Tyne Bridge is now reserved for buses and bikes only.

References



A184
Junctions
Roads
Places
Related Pictures
View gallery (8)
Heworth Roundabout - Geograph - 201803.jpgA184 near Wardley - Geograph - 1582413.jpgA19 Heading South - Geograph - 1718007.jpgGrey Street (C) Andrew Curtis - Geograph - 1679521.jpgGateshead 1968 proposals.jpg
Other nearby roads
Gateshead
A1(M) • A69 • A167 • A185 • A185(M) • A189 • A194(M) • A195 • A613 (Gateshead) • A692 • A1114 (Gateshead) • A6081 • A6082 • A6083 • A6084 • A6115 (Tyneside) • A6125 • A6126 • A6127 • A6171 • B601 • B1288 • B1295 (Gateshead) • B1296 • B1296 (Gateshead - Heworth) • B1307 • B1426 • B6317 • Central Motorway East Bypass • E15 • E31 (via Newcastle) • Friars Goose Crossing • M100 • T1 (Britain) • T25 (Britain)
Newcastle upon Tyne
A1 • A1(M) • A1(M)/Newcastle Central Motorway East • A1/Sandbox • A69 • A108 (Seaham - Seaton Burn) • A167 • A167(M) • A186 • A187 • A188 • A189 • A191 • A193 • A695 • A695(M) • A696 • A696(M) • A1056 (Northumberland) • A1057 (Newcastle upon Tyne) • A1058 • A1058(M) • A1059 (Newcastle upon Tyne) • A1060 (Newcastle upon Tyne) • A6082 • A6085 • A6086 (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) • A6115 (Tyneside) • A6125 • A6126 • A6127 • A6127(M) • B1296 • B1304 (Newcastle) • B1305 • B1305 (Quayside, Newcastle) • B1306 (Newcastle) • B1307 • B1308 (Newcastle) • B1309 • B1309 (Jesmond) • B1310 • B1311 • B1311 (Byker) • B1312 • B1312 (Byker) • B1313 • B1314 • B1318 • B1600 • B6323 • B6324 • B6325 (Newcastle) • B6326 (Newcastle) • B6327 • B6328 • B6329 • B6330 • B6331 • B6332 • B6333 • B6334 • B6335 • B6336 • B6337 • B6338 • B6339 • B6340 (Gosforth) • B6431 (Newcastle upon Tyne) • B6440 • B6528 • B6534 • C101 (Newcastle upon Tyne) • C103 (Newcastle upon Tyne) • C104 (Newcastle upon Tyne) • C105 (Newcastle upon Tyne) • C106 (Newcastle upon Tyne) • C107 (Newcastle upon Tyne) • C108 (Newcastle upon Tyne) • C109 (Newcastle upon Tyne) • C110 (Newcastle upon Tyne) • C111 (Newcastle upon Tyne) • C112 (Newcastle upon Tyne) • C113 (Newcastle upon Tyne) • C114 (Newcastle upon Tyne) • C115 (Newcastle upon Tyne) • Central Motorway East Bypass • Central Motorway West • E15 • E18 • E31 (via Newcastle) • E110 (Old System) • East-West Underground Motorway • Friars Goose Crossing • T1 (Britain) • T25 (Britain) • T86 (Britain)
Sunderland
A100-A199
A100 • A101 • A102 • A103 • A104 • A105 • A106 • A107 • A108 • A109 • A110 • A111 • A112 • A113 • A114 • A115 • A116 • A117 • A118 • A119
A120 • A121 • A122 • A123 • A124 • A125 • A126 • A127 • A128 • A129 • A130 • A131 • A132 • A133 • A134 • A135 • A136 • A137 • A138 • A139
A140 • A141 • A142 • A143 • A144 • A145 • A146 • A147 • A148 • A149 • A150 • A151 • A152 • A153 • A154 • A155 • A156 • A157 • A158 • A159
A160 • A161 • A162 • A163 • A164 • A165 • A166 • A167 • A168 • A169 • A170 • A171 • A172 • A173 • A174 • A175 • A176 • A177 • A178 • A179
A180 • A181 • A182 • A183 • A184 • A185 • A186 • A187 • A188 • A189 • A190 • A191 • A192 • A193 • A194 • A195 • A196 • A197 • A198 • A199
Defunct Itineraries & Motorways: A102(M) East Cross Route • A102(M) Southern Approach • A106(E) • A108(N) • A108(S) • A115 • A118
A132 • A122 • A135 • A138 • A139 • A147 • A154 • A160 • A167(M) • A168(M) • A176 • A180(W) • A180(E) • A194(M) • A194 • A195(M) • A195


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