M180 motorway

UK motorway routebox
motorway= M180
length-mi= 25
length-km= 40
direction= West - East
start= Stainforth
destinations= Scunthorpe
end= Elsham
opening-date= 1977
completion-date= 1979
junctions=
euroroute= European route number small sign|22

The M180 motorway is a major road in England. The motorway runs east from M18 motorway near Thorne to the junction of the A15 and A180 roads near Humberside Airport. It begins in the borough of Doncaster. Near Sandtoft it enters North Lincolnshire, where it remains. Its twenty-five mile long route passes Scunthorpe and Brigg, as it carries vehicles to the ports of Immingham and Grimsby, on the east coast. The road forms part of the unsigned Euroroute E22.

The motorway bypass around Brigg was discussed for many years, but the Flixborough explosion gave it more importance, and was built three years later in 1977 as the second section of the motorway. At this time the A15 ran through Hibaldstow and Redbourne to Brigg, and the junction with the motorway was at Castlethorpe Corner, about a mile east of the current A15 junction on the line of the Roman Ermine Street. The initial, and somewhat diminutive section of the motorway was the short-lived A18(M) [ [http://pathetic.org.uk/former/a18m/ Pathetic Motorways: A18(M)] ] also known as the Tudworth Link, which connected the roundabout junction with the M18 to the A18/A614. The easterly A18(M) sliproad is still used, though the original roundabout at junction 1 has now been replaced by a bridge close to Tudworth Hall Farm. The last section to be built was the Trent viaduct, opened in October 1979 by Kenneth Clarke, despite being 43 weeks late on account of strikes and bad weather.

The motorway is built to dual three-lane standard for most of its duration (aside from a short dual two-lane section past Scunthorpe), and is quite straight and flat.

The M180 has its own spur - the M181. It is somewhat strange that while the M180 has to make do with a roundabout junction with the M18, its spur has a large, freeflowing trumpet interchange. Due its emptiness, even on busy days, people who own cars with a high top speed have lovingly chosen the M180 for their own private speed demonstration track. At the start of the M180 are the [http://www.moto-way.com/page.cfm?Section=2&location=32 Doncaster North] services, owned by Moto.

A180 extension

It was extended in the 1980s, but as the all purpose A180 - a two lane dual carriageway which continued on to Grimsby and Cleethorpes. In its early planning stages, it was to be named the A18. The £18m six-mile section from Brigg to Ulceby (A160) was opened in March 1983, and the £21m seven-mile section from Ulceby to Grimsby in late 1983: the road surface of this section is particularly noisyFact|date=July 2008. The lack of observable landscape features, the flat and straight dimensions of the road, and the hypnotic effect of the concrete surface have helped to make it difficult for some drivers to stay awake whilst at the wheel when tired, or have had not enough sleepFact|date=July 2008. Many of the fatalities on the road have been attributed to drivers being asleep at the wheel.

This section of road begins in North Lincolnshire near Barnetby at junction 5 of the M180. There are services on this roundabout with the A15. Close by is Humberside Airport, along the A18, and the Viking Way crosses here. Near Ulceby, where it crosses the Brigg-Grimsby railway, it briefly enters Lincolnshire and West Lindsey. It then enters North Lincolnshire for a kilometre, then just before the A160, it enters North-East Lincolnshire. From Ulceby it follows the course of the railway to Grimsby. At Immingham, there is a junction with the A1173. Near Healing, there is a junction with the A1136, with access to the [http://www.nelincs.gov.uk/business/businesssites/Europarc+Innovation+Centre.htm Europarc Innovation Centre] . It enters Grimsby, with two roundabouts near West Marsh. It meets the A16 at a roundabout near the docks in East Marsh, and ceases to be a trunk road. The A180 continues from here along pre-existing roads (before the 1983 expansion), crossing the railway, then meets the A46 and A1098 at a roundabout in Cleethorpes, where the A180 and A46 ends.

There are few services along the A180 or M180. Where the B1210 crosses the road between Immingham and Habrough, there is the "Luxmore Service Station" on either side of the road, which has BP services and a SPAR shop on the westbound side and a Total garage on the eastbound side.

Junctions

Famous Patrons of the M180

*Gary Hart - Fell asleep on the M62 after driving the entire length of the M180, causing the Selby rail crash, and killing ten people.
*Gaizka Mendieta - was fined for speeding on this motorway after playing in Scunthorpe United player Alex Calvo-Garcia's testimonial match

References

External links

* [http://www.cbrd.co.uk/motorway/m180/ CBRD Motorway Database - M180]
* [http://pathetic.org.uk/current/m180/ Pathetic Motorways - M180]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/humber/4293685.stm A180 is quietened down.]
* [http://www.iht.org/motorway/m180master.htm UK Motorway Archive.]