B4486
| B4486 | ||||||||||
| Location Map ( geo) | ||||||||||
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| From: | Ebbw Vale (SO168101) | |||||||||
| To: | Waun Lwyd (SO176069) | |||||||||
| Distance: | 2.6 miles (4.2 km) | |||||||||
| Meets: | A4281, A4046 | |||||||||
| Former Number(s): | A4046 | |||||||||
| Old route now: | A4281 | |||||||||
| Highway Authorities | ||||||||||
| Traditional Counties | ||||||||||
| Route outline (key) | ||||||||||
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For the original B4486 in Barry, see B4486 (Barry).
Route
The B4486 is a short B-road in Ebbw Vale, now comprising two disconnected sections although it was once a single through route.
The northern start of the B4486 remains today in almost exactly the same spot as it was when the route was first created, following World War II: namely, at the junction of Libanus Road (then part of the A4046) and Steel Works Road (at the time, the B4486) in Pont-y-gof, north of Ebbw Vale town centre. However, later developments (see History, below) led to today's situation whereby it is now Libanus Road that is the B4486, running south from here and into the town centre – where the first section of the route ends at a rather convoluted junction with the present A4046 – while Steel Works Road from this point is now a part of the A4281.
The second, southern part of the B4486 begins about a kilometre south-south-east of here (as the crow flies), at a left turn off the A4281 Steel Works Road on the northern edge of Ty Llwyn. The B4486 – taking over the name Steel Works Road at this point, and back on its original route – then runs south through Ty Llwyn itself, before reaching what is now open country and presently ending in the next settlement, Waun Lwyd, where it meets the A4046 at a T-junction.
History
The B4486 came into existence after World War II. At that time it was a loop off the A4046, turning off that road in Pont-y-gof, north of Ebbw Vale town centre, and heading south along Steel Works Road, eventually to rejoin the A-road south of the town, at Waun Lwyd.
In the 1980s the A4046 between Ebbw Vale Cemetery (junction with the B4478) and the town centre was rebuilt as a new and more direct relief road (North West Approach, avoiding Pont-y-gof), and the old route along Cemetery Road and Libanus Road was added to the itinerary of the B4486 (Libanus Road thereby becoming a short spur of the B4486).
When the A4281 came into existence in the 2010s it took over much of the northern section of the B4486, although not the Libanus Road spur, which remains numbered B4486 to this day.
