A50 road

UK road routebox
road= A50
length-mi=
length-km=
direction= North-Southeast
start= Warrington
destinations= Stoke on Trent
Uttoxeter
end= Leicester
construction-date=
completion-date=
junctions=

The A50 is a major trunk road in England. It runs from Warrington to Leicester; however it used to be a much longer route.

Current route

The A50 runs from the centre of Warrington via Junction 20 of the M6, Knutsford, Holmes Chapel, Kidsgrove and Stoke on Trent to Junction 24 of the M1 near Kegworth, via Derby's southern bypass. From here the A50 is concurrent with the M1, resuming again at Junction 22, the A50 runs to the centre of the City of Leicester which is its southernmost point.

Between Stoke and Derby what is now the A50 was planned to be the M64. The resulting A564, which borrowed the alias A50, is in effect this motorway, though unfortunately built with reduced costs and safety.

* The nine-mile £16m Blythe Bridge - Uttoxeter section (convenient for Alton Towers traffic from the north-west) opened in late 1984 as the A564.
* The six-mile £19m Hatton, Hilton and Foston Bypass opened (as the A564) on May 25, 1995, by John Watts.Fact|date=May 2008
* The three-mile £52m section 1 of the Blythe Bridge to Queensway section opened in June 1997, and the one mile £21m section 2 opened in November 1997.
* Maybe as a reference to the former M64, the £110m sixteen-mile Derby Southern Bypass, opened in September 1997 as the A564. This was the main piece in the jigsaw of the Stoke-Derby route, and mirrored the plans for the original M64, even having three lanes in some sections - notably the section from Kegworth to the A6 junction near Derby. The A6 Derby Spur opened at the same time.
* The five-mile £20.6m Doveridge Bypass opened on 6 March 1998 also as the A564. The £2.6m A516 Etwall bypass which opened in February 1992 allowed a quicker route to the west of Derby from this section. Once the Southern Derby Bypass was completed, it became the A50. The road is maintained privately by Connect A50 Ltd. Much of the new section of road is made of concrete.

Previous routes

North of Leicester, before the dual carriageway section bypassing Derby was built, the A50 formerly went through Burton upon Trent and Ashby-de-la-Zouch to Leicester, but that section is now designated the A511 road.

South of Leicester, the A50 used to terminate at Hockliffe in Bedfordshire at a junction with the A5.

* The section from Leicester to Northampton is now designated the A5199 having been down-classified when the A14 was built to deter drivers from using this stretch assuming it was a higher grade than it is.
* The section south of Northampton was down-classified when the M1 was built as it runs parallel with the motorway and is an unsuitable alternative:
** Between Northampton and the Newport Pagnell bypass it is now the B526.
** Between the Newport Pagnell bypass and Junction 14 of the M1 it is now part of the A509 road.
** From Junction 14 of the M1 to Woburn it is the A5130
** From Woburn to Hockcliffe it is the A4012.

The old A50 used to be the main route to London from Leicester, before it was replaced in the 19th century by what is now the A6.

References

External links

* [http://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/roadlists/f99/50.shtml "SABRE" website.]
* [http://www.highways.gov.uk/roads/projects/a_roads/a50/stoke_derby Highways Agency site.]
* [http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Agora/3542/concreteprotests.html Problems with noise on concrete road surface.]