A500 road
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
|
| Direction | North - South/East-West (Part Circular) |
| Start | Nantwich |
| Primary destinations |
Crewe Kidsgrove Stoke-on-Trent |
|---|---|
| End | Clayton |
| Construction began | 1962 |
| Construction ended | 2006 |
| Roads joined |  M6 motorway A34 road A50 road A52 road A53 road A527 road |
The A500 is a major road in Staffordshire and Cheshire, England. It is dual carriageway for most of its length and connects Nantwich, junctions 16 and 15 of the M6 motorway with the city of Stoke-on-Trent. Because of its shape between the motorway junctions, it is known locally as the D-Road.
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[edit] Route
The road is the primary access route for traffic to and from almost all areas of Stoke-on-Trent. It runs to the south of Newcastle, then turns north to pass between Stoke and Fenton before passing through the disused Wolstanton Colliery before turning east through Talke Pits before crossing the M6 at junction 16. It continues south of Crewe before turning north around Nantwich where it ends.
[edit] History
The A500 was initially built from the M6 motorway at junction 16 to the A34 road at Talke. At the southern end, a dual carriageway was constructed from junction 15 of the M6 to the A34 near Trentham and this was given the number A5006. The road was then subsequently extended from Talke to the A53 road. The final section from the A34 in the south to the A53 junction was built between 1974 and 1977.[1] The two middle junctions were to be grade separated, but due to financial constraints they were built as roundabouts. This final section was named Queensway. On completion the whole route became the A500.
The route remained unchanged until the 1980s when the Hanford Roundabout junction had a flyover built as this was a major bottleneck for both the A500 and A34. The 1977 section east of this junction had been built with provision for the bridge, but the section built as the A5006 required realignment for the new interchange. In the late 1980s the road was extended from Junction 16 to close to Weston with connections provided to existing roads to Keele and Crewe. The A52, which at that time ran to Nantwich, was renumbered from Newcastle to Weston as a B road and the section from Weston to Nantwich was incorporated into the A500. In 1989 a bypass to the west of Nantwich was opened, extending the A500 from the south of Nantwich to its current northerly terminus with the A51.[2]
In 1993 a proposal was made to add the missing flyover and underpass close to Stoke-on-Trent railway station, with another plan having already been dropped due to the cost. However, to allow a full review of the national roads programme this scheme was suspended.[1] In 1997 the A50 was rerouted through Stoke-on-Trent to meet the A500 at Sideway. This led to a large increase in traffic using the Stoke section of the road - in some sections it carries 60,000 vehicles per day.
On the approach to Hough was a narrow single lane bridge which was added to with a Bailey bridge in 1993.[3] In September 2003, the Shavington bypass opened to reroute the road away from three villages on the former A52 section.[4] This was built to dual carriageway standards with provision for further junctions to new development sites.
In 2002 a local pressure group proposed that the Nantwich bypass should be renumbered as the A51 to keep traffic out of the town centre.[5]
Work began on 16th February, 2004 on the A500 Pathfinder Project to replace the final two roundabouts in Stoke with underpasses. The project involved alterations to the path of the Trent and Mersey Canal and River Trent, along with new provisions for pedestrians. The work was carried out by Edmund Nuttall Limited and was planned to be completed in Spring 2006. Following a number of delays[6] the road opened on Tuesday 26th September 2006, with the southbound traffic in the morning and northbound traffic in the afternoon..[7]
[edit] Junctions
| A500 Road | ||
| Northbound* exits | Junction | Southbound* exits |
| Tarporley, Chester Nantwich A51 Wrexham (A534) Worleston B5074 |
||
| Nantwich, Middlewich A530 | ||
| Nantwich, Crewe A534 | ||
| Stone A51 Wybunbury |
||
| Nantwich, Stone A51 End of dual carriageway |
Cheerbrook Roundabout | Start of dual carriageway |
| Crewe, Shavington B5071 | Crewe, Shavington B5071 | |
| No exits | No exits | |
| Start of dual carriageway | Crewe, Weston A5020 Keele A531 End of dual carriageway |
|
| Crewe, Weston A5020 Keele A531 |
||
| The NORTH WEST, Preston The SOUTH, Birmingham M6 Radway Green B5078 |
||
| The NORTH WEST, Preston The SOUTH, Birmingham M6 Radway Green B5078 End of dual carriageway |
M6 J16 | Start of dual carriageway |
| Audley, Alsager | Audley, Alsager | |
| Newcastle-under-Lyme Talke, Congleton A34 |
Newcastle-under-Lyme Talke, Kidsgrove, Congleton A34 |
|
| Kidsgrove A527 (A50) | Tunstall A527 | |
| Wolstanton A527 Longport, Tunstall, Burslem A5271 |
Wolstanton A527 Longport, Tunstall, Burslem A5271 |
|
| Supermarket | Supermarket | |
| Newcastle-under-Lyme Hanley, Leek A53 |
Newcastle-under-Lyme Hanley, Leek A53 |
|
| Shelton B5045 | No exit | |
| No exit | Stoke Road Junction | Hanley, Stoke A52 Fenton, Longton A5007 |
| No exit | No exit | |
| Hanley, Stoke A52 Fenton, Longton A5007 |
City Road Junction | No exit |
| No exit | Heron Cross | |
| Longton, Uttoxeter, Derby A50 | Uttoxeter, Derby A50 Sideway |
|
| Sideway | No exit | |
| Stone, Trentham Trent Vale, Newcastle-under-Lyme A34 |
Hanford Roundabout | Stone, Trentham Trent Vale, Newcastle-under-Lyme A34 |
| Start of road | M6 J15 | The NORTH WEST, Preston The SOUTH, Birmingham M6 Eccleshall Newcastle-Under-Lyme A519 |
- *The route runs in a semi-circular direction in Stoke-On-Trent. The table has its northern terminus at the top
[edit] Trivia
- D is also the Roman numeral representing the number 500.
[edit] References
- ^ a b A500 City Road & Stoke Road Junction Improvement - Statement of Case - Case for the Highways Agency
- ^ The A51/52 North of Newcastle-under-Lyme-Nantwich-Tarporley-Tarvin Trunk Road (Nantwich Bypass) Order 1989
- ^ Highways Agency - A500 Hough Railway Bridge Scheme Page
- ^ Highways Agency - A500 Basford, Hough, Shavington Bypass Scheme Page
- ^ Local Residents Association Report on Resigning Nantwich Roads
- ^ BBC News - Compensation bid over A500 works - 13/08/2006
- ^ BBC News - A500 opens again after roadworks - 26/09/2006
[edit] External links
- Road to Nowhere: A500
- Highways Agency – Pathfinder Project Scheme
- a500.co.uk - Contractor's Official Site
- Map and aerial photo of A500 road from Multimap.com
- Other map and aerial photo sources
 |
A roads in Zone 5 of the Great Britain road numbering system |
|
|---|---|---|
| A5 | A50 - A51 - A52 - A53 - A54 - A55 - A56 - A57 - A58 - A59 | |
| A500 - A501 - A505 - A508 - A509 - A511 - A512 - A514 - A518 - A519 | ||
| A525 - A528 - A530 - A533 - A556 - A562 - A563 - A565 - A570 - A574 - A580 - A583 | ||
| A590 - A591 -A592 - A594 - A595 - A596 - | ||
| A5012 - A5025 - A5036 - A5038 | ||
| A5103 - A5112 - A5117 - A5124 - A5127 - A5130 | ||
| A5183 - A5199 - A5300 | ||
| List of A roads in Zone 5 | ||
