A6078

This article is about the Blackburn Orbital Route.
For the original A6078 in Northumberland, see A6078 (Northumberland).

Route

The A6078 forms the Blackburn Orbital Route, a tightly drawn series of existing roads which have been linked together with some partial new-build road to form an unusual ring shape. It officially came into existence in May 2001, when the principal through route across Blackburn town centre was closed to traffic. Today it is still the subject of much local controversy in Blackburn with numerous improvements still planned for it.

It exists as the much watered down version of the Blackburn Inner Relief Route, part of the M65 proposals of 1974. One section of the Orbital Route is faithful to the Relief Route proposal, as explained below.

Blackburn Orbital

This route description runs clockwise from the Townsmoor Gyratory.

The first section of the Orbital Route is the large Townsmoor Gyratory which was formed out of existing roads and is on the site of the originally proposed Nova Scotia Interchange on the never-built alignment of the M65. Heading across from Russell Street it crosses the Blackburn–Preston Railway via the new bowstring arch Alfred Wainwright Bridge, which replaced a single-lane viaduct from the Victorian era. This bridge opened in June 2008 and allowed high vehicles to avoid the restricted headroom of Darwen Street Bridge further north (until 2008 all anti-clockwise traffic passed underneath the railway), and then sweeps around to join the existing network at Canterbury Street, although proposals now exist for this section to be replaced by a dual carriageway right through to King Street (the A674). These proposals were finally realised in 2013 as preparatory works got underway, with construction starting in summer 2015 after a protracted legal battle over the status of a graveyard the route crosses.

The A6078 at Audley

At King Street the road performs a quick dogleg to join Montague Street passing Blackburn College on the right before it meets the extended Barbara Castle Way, named after the former MP for the town, responsible for the breathalyser, which opened in June 2003. At Preston New Road (the A677), it becomes a dual carriageway, which was built as Phase One of the Inner Relief Route, opening in 1990. This road survived the wrangling over the urban motorway plans of the 1970s and forms the best section of the road, but one that is festooned with traffic signals and a hard to adhere to 30 mph speed limit enforced by a speed camera.

At the eastern end of Barbara Castle Way, a roundabout dumps traffic back onto the original road network, crossing the Leeds and Liverpool Canal on a widened section of road completed in December 2003. The A678 continues straight ahead, and all orbital traffic is directed down a single lane side street to join Higher Audley Street, bringing the orbital route down to the Audley Junction where the road meets the former A679 and then travels straight across over the canal again before feeding back into the Townsmoor Gyratory.

On a good day, this under-3 mile journey will take you about 15 minutes. On a bad day, allow double that and wish you'd bypassed the town on the A6119 or M65 instead.

Junctions

Work in progress. The Junctions are currently in the process of being numbered.

Image	Name	Classified Road(s)	Grid Reference	More Info	Map
	Towns Moor Junction Junction 1	A666, A6077	SD682274		SABRE • Google • geo
	Canterbury Street Junction 2		SD679275		SABRE • Google • geo
	King Street Junction 3	A674, King Street	SD677278		SABRE • Google • geo
	Montague Street Junction	A677	SD678284		SABRE • Google • geo
	Lark Hill Junction	A666	SD684284		SABRE • Google • geo
	Eanam Junction		SD686282		SABRE • Google • geo
	Copy Nook Junction	A678	SD689281		SABRE • Google • geo
	Audley Junction		SD687275		SABRE • Google • geo