A6010

This article is about the current route of the A6010 in Manchester.
For the original route in the Peak District, see A6010 (Derbyshire).

Much of the A6010 forms part of the Manchester Intermediate Ring Road, a route which should have been purpose-built but is instead relegated to the road it is today. It is worth noting that the 1990s Alan Turing Way in east Manchester follows the vague line of the City of Manchester 1945 plan for the eastern side of the Intermediate Ring Road.

The road starts just inside Salford, at traffic lights where the A576 TOTSOs. It starts off heading northeastwards but quickly turns sharply right and heads southeastwards to enter Manchester. It follows Elizabeth Street into Cheetham Hill, where that road continues ahead and the A6010 bears left to cross the A665 at traffic lights by the Fort Shopping Park. The road now heads slightly northwards once more to cross the Metrolink line to Bury by Queens Road station and then the River Irk. The road then splits to cross the A664 at adjacent sets of traffic lights.

The two carriageways come together again and we cross the Metrolink line to Rochdale as we continue southeastwards along Queens Road. We then go under two railway bridges as we enter Miles Platting, carrying the lines from Manchester Victoria to Rochdale and Stalybridge respectively. On the far side the road splits again as we cross the A62 at traffic lights; this junction could be classed as a hamburger roundabout for the A62, whereas the similar junction with the A664 could not.

A6010. Pottery Lane, Manchester

When the carriageways meet again the road becomes D2. We cross the Rochdale Canal and move onto Alan Turing Way, which then passes between Philips Park and Sportcity, crossing the Ashton Canal in the process. The A662 is crossed at traffic lights, followed by the A635 shortly afterwards, then we go under the railway line by Ashburys station. Now on Pottery Lane we pass through Belle Vue and cross the A57 at traffic lights. The central reservation then disappears and we bend sharply right, skirting a retail park, before going under the London to Manchester Line. There's then a short residential section before we cross the A6, again at traffic lights, and so go out of zone.

We head south along St John's Road to traffic lights. Left is a spur of the A6010 heading back to the A6 (and the only way to head southbound along that road from the anticlockwise A6010), whilst the mainline TOTSOs right. We head southwestwards along Dickenson Road to cross the A34 at traffic lights, before passing between Birchfields Park and the Consulate of Pakistan. Presently another signalised T-junction is met and we TOTSO left; right is the B5117 but this road is the original route of the A34.

We pass Platt Fields Park and the Fallowfield Campus of Manchester University and then TOTSO right at traffic lights, where we cannon off the B5093. As we head westwards through Fallowfield the road is initially S2 but soon duals (although the road remains residential and so it's more D1 with cycle lanes than D2). On the far side of the A5103 the road becomes S2 once more and we continue west along Wilbraham Road to cross the South Manchester Metrolink line by Chorlton station. We run through the centre of Chorlton itself, after which the road becomes residential once more. It's not long now before the end of the road, at traffic lights on the A5145, where that road appears to TOTSO.