A1 road

The A1 (sometimes referred to as the Great North Road), is the longest numbered road in the UK at 409 miles (658 km) long. It joins London, the capital city of the United Kingdom, to Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Where the need arises to distinguish between the modern road and some former parts of the road, such as where it passed through a town or village that has subsequently been bypassed, the name "A1" is always reserved for the modern section, while the Great North Road refers to its historical course.

Origins and History

For the numbering rationale see: Great Britain road numbering scheme

The original A1 route was designated by the Ministry of Transport in 1921, following the medieval Great North Road. This ran from St Paul's Cathedral in Central London through Barnet, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, to Alconbury, where it joined the route of a Roman road, Ermine Street, as far as Colsterworth, where it is joined by the A151. The route was modified in 1927 when bypasses were built around Barnet and Hatfield, the latter being rebuilt in a tunnel during the 1980s. In 1960 Stamford was bypassed, as was Retford in 1961 and St Neots in 1971.

The Great North Road includes stretches of Roman Road including Dere Street, and is mentioned in much English literature, for example Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens.

Route

The A1 runs from the heart of the City of London at St. Pauls Cathedral to the centre of Scotland's capital, Edinburgh.

The A1 runs out of London through Islington (where Upper Street forms part of its route), up the Holloway Road, through Barnet, Potters Bar, Hatfield, Welwyn, Stevenage, Baldock, Biggleswade, Sandy, and St Neots. Continuing north, the A1 runs on modern bypasses around Grantham, Newark-on-Trent, Retford, Bawtry, Doncaster, Knottingley, Garforth, Wetherby, Knaresborough, Boroughbridge, Darlington, Scotch Corner, Durham, Chester-le-Street, past the Angel of the North sculpture in Gateshead, around Newcastle upon Tyne, Morpeth, Alnwick, Berwick-upon-Tweed, into Scotland, past Dunbar, Haddington and Musselburgh before finally arriving in Edinburgh at the East End of Princes Street near Waverley Station at the junction of the A7, A8 and A900 roads.

A1(M)

Some sections of the A1 have been upgraded to motorway standard. These are known as the A1(M). These include:

a long stretch between the M25 at South Mimms to just north of Baldock;
the new four lane Peterborough section from the Alconbury junction near Huntingdon to Orton Southgate near Peterborough; this stretch intersects with and receives traffic from the A14 eastbound from the M6 and westbound from the A14 and M11.
a section bypassing Doncaster and intersecting the M18 (this was the first section of motorway on the A1 and one of the earliest sections of motorway built in the United Kingdom);
the new Hook Moor section, from Darrington, intersects with the M62 adjacent to Ferrybridge power station and is joined by the end of the M1 at Aberford.
a relatively new section which now runs from Wetherby to Dishforth, past Harrogate, Ripon and Boroughbridge. The southern stretch to the River Wharfe bridge opened in August 2005.
another long stretch from Scotch Corner in North Yorkshire to Washington in Tyne and Wear through County Durham.

Future improvements

A motorway section has recently been built between Darrington and Hook Moor to join the existing section at the M1 junction. The scheme is a dual 3-lane motorway to replace the existing two-lane dual carriageway, much of which was on a substandard alignment. The northern section of the upgrade, bypassing Fairburn village opened to traffic in April 2005 with a temporary connection with the existing A1 between Fairburn and Brotherton. The southern section, with a free-flow interchange with the M62 motorway opened to traffic on 13 January 2006, although there are several minor things to finish. The scheme is expected to be fully complete by spring 2006.

Further sections of motorway upgrades are planned, which would ultimately create a single motorway running from Doncaster to Gateshead.

The next two sections of motorway likely to be built are from Bramham (the A1(M)/A64 junction) to Wetherby, and from Dishforth (A1(M)/A168 to Barton (end of northernmost section of A1(M)). The Bramham to Wetherby scheme went to a public inquiry on 31st January 2006. Designed by James Poyner, construction of the Dishforth to Barton scheme is scheduled to start in April 2008.

Once these two schemes are complete, which is currently scheduled for 2011, then the Newcastle upon Tyne area will be connected to the rest of the national motorway network. There will be a short section of normal dual-carriageway remaining on the A1 between Doncaster and the M62 motorway.

Improvements to the road north of Newcastle upon Tyne were planned where the road consists mostly of single carriageway sections as opposed to a combination of dual carriageway and motorway to the south. Plans to dual the road from Morpeth to Felton and from Adderstone to Belford were shelved in 2006 as they were not considered a regional priority^*. There are no current plans to dual the whole of the A1 route between Newcastle and Edinburgh, despite fierce campaigns in the past to make this so.

A scheme is in place to replace all junctions between Orton Southgate and Gonerby Moor with grade separated junctions, remove all crossings and breaks in the central reservation, and reduce or eliminate minor turnings.

An upgrade of the Black Cat Roundabout at the junction with the A421 (Bedford Road) is underway (as of 2005) ^*.

Trivia

Road signs

The A1 is the closest thing Britain has to a cult road, and so some of its road signs achieved some sort of mythical status.

Near the southern end are signs saying "Hatfield and the North"; one could turn off for Hatfield easily enough, but as for "the North", it just keeps receding. These signs gave their name to a 70s rock band.
At the Northern end, signs say the opposite "London and the South" - equally vague, equally uninformative. (Update: The signs in Edinburgh have now been changed to just say "Berwick A1")
Leeds is exactly 198 miles on the A1 from both capital cities.
At the northern end of the Doncaster bypass is a clearway sign with attached plate prohibiting stopping for no less than 62 miles.

Other

The A1(M) is mentioned in the song Gabadon by Sheffield band Haze.

The East Coast Main Line runs alongside the A1 for most of its length, and passes through most of the same principal towns as the road along the way. The railway also terminates at exactly the same places as the road either end - Waverley station in Edinburgh is immediately adjacent to the A1's northern terminus on Princes Street, equally the southern terminus of the ECML, King's Cross station, is next to York Way - the beginning of the A1.

External links

A1 (Großbritannien) | A1 (väg i Storbritannien)

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