B857
B857 | ||||
Location Map ( geo) | ||||
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From: | Renton (NS387775) | |||
To: | Balloch (NS386815) | |||
Via: | Alexandria | |||
Distance: | 2.7 miles (4.3 km) | |||
Meets: | A812, A811 | |||
Former Number(s): | A812, A82 | |||
Highway Authorities | ||||
Traditional Counties | ||||
Route outline (key) | ||||
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For the former B857 in Wester Ross, see B857 (Lochcarron - Shieldaig).
When the A82 through Renton and Alexandria, north of Dumbarton, was bypassed the road through the town, which already had a complex numbering history, took the B857 number.
The road actually starts on the short A812 just south of Renton, at the end of the eastbound sliproads from the A82, and then runs northwards through Renton as Renton Road, Lennox Street and Main Street. After crossing the railway, the road runs parallel to it around the edge of Alexandria Town Centre. This relief road appears to post-date the A82 bypass; a left fork (partially blocked off) is the old route of the A812 / A82 prior to the Alexandria Bypass being built. In the centre of town the B857 meets a large gyratory around the railway station (southbound traffic has to cross the line twice). The road then curves back around the north of the town centre on Bank Street and so onto the historic route along North Main Street. Heading north once more, the B857 passes the former Argyll Car Factory, now home to Loch Lomond Galleries, a sort of outlet shopping centre, although the north end of the building is derelict. It then becomes Luss Road as it Heads out of town, through modern housing estates, and it's not long now before the B857 terminates at a roundabout on the A811 in Balloch. The road remains on the west side of the River Leven for its entire route.
Some maps show the B857 as continuing along the line of the A812 into Dumbarton. However, West Dunbartonshire Council still list the A812 as being a current route, and signs on the ground still sign it, with the signs on the A82 having been recently updated from the incorrect (B875) to the correct (B857), suggesting that traffic uses a road with a different number to reach the B857, ie the A812.
History
In 1922 when the roads were first classified, all of the B857 route was part of the A82. However, in 1934 this was re-routed away from Dumbarton, and along the original A811 and A812 routes to cross Bonhill Bridge and so resume its original line north of Alexandria Town Centre. At this point, the A812 was reassigned to the former route north from Dumbarton to Alexandria. Then in the early 1970s, the southern section of the A82 Alexandria Bypass was opened, and apparently assigned the A82 number. It is not clear whether the A812 was curtailed to its current length at this point, with the A82 resuming its route through Renton, or if the new road was a spur of the A82 pending the completion of the bypass. The 1976 Landranger map, which shows the bypass complete, marks both the old and new roads as A-roads, perhaps because the bypass was so new that the map hadn't been fully updated. Either way, it was only after the bypass was fully opened that the B857 number was assigned to the route through Renton and Alexandria.
As noted above, the town centre relief road in Alexandria appears to post-date the construction of the A82 bypass route, although only by a year or two, and so when the route was first downgraded the B857 would probably have passed through the town centre on Main Street.