A664

The A664 links Manchester to the northern side of Rochdale, forming an easterly bypass around Rochdale. It meets a number of roads providing access to the M62 but does not interchange with that road itself.

Route

The obvious place for the A664 to start is on the A665 Manchester & Salford Inner Relief Route, which at this point is actually two parallel one-way streets. However, many maps show the road continuing a short distance into the city centre to end at traffic lights by the Shudehill Interchange - this is presumably for historic reasons: the road originally continued along the High Street to its terminus on the A6 Market Street.

The road heads northeastwards through the suburbs, the street name (Rochdale Road) already emphasising its destination. Initially dual, the road narrows just before crossing the bridge over the railway line east of Victoria station. It continues through Collyhurst and widens again just before crossing the A6010 Intermediate Ring Road, which here (again) is made up of two parallel one-way streets, requiring two separate sets of traffic lights to cross.

Near Blackley

Now non-primary (but still dual for a short distance more) the road runs in a more northerly direction through Blackley, where it becomes wooded for a short distance as it passes the Boggart Hole Clough park. Slightly further on the road has been straightened, after which it bears right to widen considerably and cross the A6104 at traffic lights just before M60 J20, which only has west-facing sliproads. The road narrows again on the far side of the motorway and leaves Manchester for Rochdale at the same point.

After skirting Alkrington Garden Village the road reaches a roundabout on the Middleton bypass where it meets the A576. The A664 is now diverted from its original route eastwards onto the D2 bypass to the next roundabout, which marks the start of the A669, before heading north to rejoin its original route at the next roundabout, where the road narrows again. The road now passes through the unbypassed part of the town centre before the A6046 bears off left at traffic lights towards the M62. We head more easterly to cross the Manchester to Rochdale railway line and the Rochdale Canal to reach a roundabout at the end of the A627(M)'s spur from J2; the spur may or may not be numbered A6138(M).

Now heading north, parallel to the A627(M), the A664 passes through Slattocks before going over the M62 with no junction to reach the Rochdale suburb of Castleton. We then reach traffic lights where the road splits. Ahead is the original line of the road, which crosses the canal and railway line again to end at traffic lights on the A58 in the suburb of Sudden. The road to the right, in existence since the 1940s, is the Rochdale southern bypass. The road parallels the canal before going under the A627(M) to reach a roundabout, where the road splits again; both of these routes are primary dual-carriageways. Left takes us through the signalised crossroads that forms J4 of the A627(M) to end at another signalised crossroads on the A58 on the far side of a Tesco car park from the Sudden terminus a few lines above.

The Rochdale bypass continues eastwards from the roundabout, remaining some distance from the town centre. The D2 Queensway becomes the S2 Kingsway on crossing the A671 at a signalised gyratory. After meeting the A6193 (which provides access to the M62) the road goes over the canal then under the Metrolink to meet the A640. It then bends to the left to go over the railway and the River Roch to end at a roundabout back on the A58 to the east of the town centre; the final section of road is dual once more.