A5020
A5020 | ||||||||||
Location Map ( geo) | ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
From: | Crewe Green (SJ722555) | |||||||||
To: | Weston (SJ725527) | |||||||||
Distance: | 2.7 miles (4.3 km) | |||||||||
Meets: | A534, B5077, A532, B5472, A500 | |||||||||
Old route now: | A532, B5472 | |||||||||
Primary Destinations | ||||||||||
Highway Authorities | ||||||||||
Traditional Counties | ||||||||||
Route outline (key) | ||||||||||
|
The A5020 is now the main route from Crewe to the M6. As such it is now a far more important road than even in the 1980s (before the A500 was extended into Cheshire), when it was purely the main road from Crewe into north Staffordshire. It has, therefore, been upgraded a few times to mark its increased status.
The A5020 now starts on the large roundabout on the eastern edge of Crewe (Crewe Green Roundabout), by the "old" centre of Crewe Green. It heads southwards and at this point acts as an eastern bypass for Crewe. Indeed, this road was only built in the second half of the 2000s and originally passed through undeveloped countryside, but in recent years extensive commercial development has taken place. After about a mile, a roundabout is reached where the new bypass rejoins the old route of the A5020. The old road into Crewe from this roundabout continued alongside the railway line to end on the A534 at the roundabout by the station; this has now been renumbered as an extension of the A532.
From December 2015, the A5020 continues south from this roundabout along David Whitby Way, named after a local man who was the co-driver of the train targeted in the Great Train Robbery. The road, now D2, goes under the Crewe to Stoke on Trent railway line then crosses a roundabout built to serve commercial and housing development which is now under way. After the roundabout the A5020 ends at another roundabout on the A500. Stubs on the roundabouts at each end of the extension existed for some years before the road was built to facilitate the new road; indeed, the A500 roundabout was built at the same time as that road but had no exits apart from the A500.
Originally the A5020 continued east past Crewe Hall before bearing right through the village of Weston to end on the A52, which later became the A500 and is now the A531. When the A500 was extended into Cheshire in the late 1980s the A5020 was rerouted to bypass Weston and so our road continued a short stretch further before bearing right at a roundabout over the railway line and then across Meremoor Moss to end at Weston Gate Roundabout on the new section of the A500.