UK Roads Thread

[Plutonic Panda]

"Reconstruction of 201 years old Union Chain Bridge gets underway"

https://constructionreviewonline.com/news/reconstruction-of-201-years-old-union-chain-bridge-gets-underway/

[Stephane Dumas]

Sir Rod Stewart fills some potholes on the road.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCvDQSgxqMA

[Plutonic Panda]

Article about future UK highway projects:

https://www.worldhighways.com/wh8/news/difficult-decisions-projects-uk

[J N Winkler]

Guardian article on the proposed Motorway Box in London (cancelled in 1973)

[kernals12]

A judge has denied review requested by an anti-highway group on the A428 Caxton Gibbet to Black Cat Roundabout project.

https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/local-news/a428-black-cat-caxton-gibbet-26646594

Once finished, this project will create a 4 lane freeway from Milton Keynes to Ipswich. And all that will be needed is another scheme from Milton Keynes to the A34 in Oxford to create an Outer M25.

[Plutonic Panda]

Excellent news!

[kernals12]

The British Government has cancelled all planned "smart motorways", which is where the breakdown lanes are converted into travel lanes, due to safety issues.

[kernals12]

A judge has denied review requested by an anti-highway group on the A428 Caxton Gibbet to Black Cat Roundabout project.

https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/local-news/a428-black-cat-caxton-gibbet-26646594

Once finished, this project will create a 4 lane freeway from Milton Keynes to Ipswich. And all that will be needed is another scheme from Milton Keynes to the A34 in Oxford to create an Outer M25.

Construction starts at the end of this year
https://www.constructionenquirer.com/2023/05/22/skanska-gets-start-date-for-delayed-507m-a428-dualling-job/

[Road Hog]

Remarkable that "gibbets" are still English landmarks even today.

[bing101]

Auto Shenanigans is a great YT channel for interesting history about Mororways in the UK.
https://www.youtube.com/@AutoShenanigans/videos

[vdeane]

One thing that's been bugging me - why are some roads designed as A##(M)?  Why not simply M##?

[bing101]

One thing that's been bugging me - why are some roads designed as A##(M)?  Why not simply M##?

M Routes is an equivalent to Interstates in the UK and A Routes are like the UK equivalent of US Routes or State Routes. Thats the impression I've seen in the examples.

[J N Winkler]

One thing that's been bugging me - why are some roads designed as A##(M)?  Why not simply M##?

Routes so numbered are considered continuations of the A-roads of the same number, but developed to motorway standard and subject to motorway regulations.  For example, the A1(M) just north of the M25 London orbital is not paralleled by the A1.  Instead, it continues as the A1 past Biggleswade, Letchworth Garden City, and St. Neots; then the A1(M) resumes briefly between Alconbury and Peterborough; and so on until Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where the northernmost length of A1(M) ends.  (The A1 continues to Edinburgh as an all-purpose road, though some segments are dual carriageway with comprehensive grade separation.)

In practice, however, because of the expectation that a route will be provided for non-motorway traffic, upgrades from all-purpose A-road to motorway that keep the A-road number with the "(M)" suffix tend to have a parallel single-carriageway all-purpose road that is often the original A-road under a different number.  This has happened with, e.g., the A74(M) in Scotland, where the B7076 is basically the old A74.

[bing101]

Auto Shenanigans tour of the M8

[bing101]

Here is more on the M8

[bing101]

[Plutonic Panda]

Article on a new road twinning project in Scotland: https://www.worldhighways.com/wh12/news/scotland-retender-a9-tomatin-moy-work

[bing101]

Here is one the proposed motorways in Cardiff until that was cancelled.

[tmoore952]

My wife and I (from Maryland in USA) did a driving tour of the UK and Wales in August. We rented a Jeep at Gatwick Airport and yes, the steering wheel was on the right side of the car (towards the center of the road as you drive).

We drove about 800 miles over 10 days, but most of that mileage was in large chunks on a couple days, with some days having very little mileage.
We stayed in Bristol (England) one night, Cardiff (Wales) two nights, Aberystwyth (Wales) one night, Betws-y-Coed (Wales) three nights. At that point we started heading back towards Gatwick Airport, but before we went back there we returned to England and spent three nights in Eveshan/Honeybourne area in the UK.

We did cross the Severn River on the M48 bridge, which was cool.
Another highlight was partially hiking up Mount Snowdonia. The days we were there it was rainy and foggy, and so we did not go all the way to the summit.

I'm not going to try to list all the roads we drove on, but we were on M roads, A roads, and (I believe) B roads, and even narrower roads. As people who are not used to driving on the left side of the road, we were relatively comfortable on the M roads and the A roads. The smaller roads were a different story, being that many of them in places had either stone fences or vertical hedges right next to the road, and many of them had water drain grates on the side of the road which (1) we were not always able to avoid driving over and (2) were not always smooth.

We drove because especially in Wales, there are places we wanted to go which are not served by public transportation.

I believe my wife wants to return and do a similar trip for Scotland. I haven't yet gauged how she feels about doing more driving, though, so I can't say for sure.

[bing101]

Here is profile on the A308.

[bing101]

Here is one from This Week.

[bing101]

Here is more on Motorway gaps in the UK.

[bing101]

Here is more on Motorway gaps in the UK.

Here is one on bad interchange designs in the UK

[zzcarp]

Here is a tour of the A64M

The link goes to a YouTube video on how to distribute a press release. No tour of A64M was to be found.

[bing101]

Here is a tour of the A64M

The link goes to a YouTube video on how to distribute a press release. No tour of A64M was to be found.

Now Fixed.