B5297

Station Road

The B5297 is a short link road in Workington town centre. It is, for the most part, a wide route which, while only marked out for two lanes, could easily carry three or four lanes of traffic in places.

The road starts at a traffic-light-controlled junction with the A596 just south of the terminus of the A66 and heads west to a roundabout, which provides access to car parking via the old railway line and underbridge. A little further on there are traffic lights for the Vulcan's Lane junction, but then the B5297 maintains priority through to its western end at the traffic lights at the southern end of the A597's elongated roundabout by the station.

History

Originally the B5297 only consisted of the first two thirds of the above. It ended on the A597 (which ran along the parallel Finkle Street) in Falcon Place and that road continued to the station, where it ended. When the A597 number was transferred to the western bypass in 1988 the B5297 took over Station Road.

Then, following the floods which destroyed Workington's bridges in 2009 the road became the temporary route of the A596 for a short time, although things are now back to normal. The B5297 has therefore had the unusual distinction of being elevated from lowly B-road to a Primary route, even if only temporarily!