A673

Chorley New Road

The A673 is a largely urban A-road in east Lancashire. It is still a major road for a good section of its length, as it provides the primary connection out to the M61 from the north of Bolton.

The road starts at Tonge Bridge on the east of Bolton town centre and heads west into town along the former A58 before getting lost in the Inner Relief Road. It reappears most unexpectedly on the A676 Folds Road, to the east of the Inner Relief Road, before heading west to meet it. The road now becomes Topp Way, part of the Inner Relief Road, before the A673 bears right at traffic lights. It then branches off to the left after a few hundred yards. The road to the right, the B6226, is Chorley Old Road; the A673 is Chorley New Road. This section of road is surprisingly wide all the way. Much of it was once marked out as a four-lane single carriageway, but many sections are now reduced to two lanes.

After a while it gains a 40 mph speed limit and crosses the A58 ring road where it gains primary status before blasting onwards towards Horwich. It eventually meets the A6027 De Havilland Way at the Beehive Roundabout and dumps primary status here and returns to a 30 mph limit. The road through Horwich remains wide enough for four lanes but is marked as two, before it eventually meets Chorley Old Road again at a roundabout and forms a very brief dual carriageway, becoming subject to the national speed limit as it skirts Lower Rivington Reservoir. The road then goes under the M61 and passes through Adlington before terminating at traffic lights on the A6 at Heath Charnock.