A575

Route

The A575 is a short A-road through the Lancashire town of Walkden - but there are hints of its being longer.

Worsley - Farnworth

The road now begins at the A572, where this road crosses beneath the M60 at J13. It heads north, and has primary status for the short section between the A572 and the A580.

Walkden Station Entrance on the A575

It crosses over the A580 at a signal-controlled junction, before climbing up into Walkden. There is a short section in Walkden where there is a one-way system, between the railway station and the town centre. In the town centre, it crosses the A6 at a multitude of traffic lights, and there is a very short dualled section. The road climbs up in a straight north-south line, heading over the M61, before meeting with the A5082 on an angular signal-controlled crossroads. There are a few more sets of traffic lights, mainly for local traffic coming out of Farnworth town centre, and there is a busy controlled T-junction at the B6199 (used by traffic cutting through to Bolton Hospital and the M61 at Junction 4). The road curves round in an easterly direction before TOTSOing left at the signal-controlled junction with the A6053. The road then reaches the A666 at the Moses Gate Interchange.

The Interchange is where the A575 is meant to end. However, there is a short section, Deansgate, in Bolton which is also numbered A575. Presumably the A575 was extended along the ex-A666 when St Peter's Way was built, although this road is now the B6536.

The road has a 30mph speed limit for its full length.

History

A much truncated road, mainly because of the M60 (née M62 although some early documents referred to A575(M), later M63). It originally, in 1922, was routed from the Barton Road "Y" junction with the A56, along what is now the unclassified Barton Road northwards before joining the B5214 to cross the Barton Swing Bridge. At some point early after the Second World War, a new alignment was constructed through Trafford Park which acted as a sort-of bypass for Urmston. This is now the B5211 running past the back of the Trafford Centre.

The original A575 also hosts an abandoned section between the new link road to the Barton Low Level Bridge and the Barton Swing Bridge. Despite being closed to traffic this section of road is still in a good condition and has been retrofitted with LED lighting. It presumably may re-open if further development of the Trafford Park area takes place.