- Autovía A-66
Highway in Spain
Name= Autovía Ruta de la Plata
Signal=
European Route=
Beginning=Gijón
End=Seville
Length= 809The Autovía A-66 is a major highway in westernSpain . It also forms part of the European Route E803. The road is an upgrade of the N-630 which is being undertaken section by section. The route roughly corresponds to the ancient Roman 'Silver Route' from the mines of northern Spain to theMediterranean .It starts at
Sevilla with a junction with theAutovía A-49 . It heads north through the wooded "Sierra Morena " and passes over the "Puerto de las Marismas". It then crosses fromAndalucia intoExtremadura . It heads through the town ofZafra on the way toMérida crossing the "Tierra de Barros". It ends in a junction with theAutovía A-5 .North of Mérida the road crosses the "Sierra de San Pedro" to the town and world heritage site of
Cáceres . Then the road crosses theTajo and Almonte rivers. The road heads north east as it enters the "Sierra de Gredos". The road becomes the N-630 (at km 489) south of the town ofPlasencia . It then heads to the university town ofSalamanca viaBéjar . The road crosses the Rio Tormes and theAutovía A-62 before travelling north toZamora and theRio Duero . 18km north the road meets the reservoir "Embalse del Esla de Ricobayo", here the N631 heads north west to theAutovía A-52 , and the N-630 along the Rio Esla to theAutovía A-6 . 6km north the A-66 branches to the north with a downgraded N-630 parallel. The road then enters the provence of León.At León the road becmes a toll Autopista AP-66 and the N-630 a trunk road as they pass through the "Montes de León" and "Sierra Cantábrica". South of León there is a junction with the
Autopista AP-71 andAutovía A-231 . The N-630 crosses the "Alto del Rabizo" (1,160m) and "Puerto de Pajares" (1,379m). The AP-66 passes through the Túnel de Negrón. EnteringAsturias the roads re-converge 36km south of the next major cityOviedo . There is a junction with theAutovía A-64 and AS-1. The A-66 finally ends 13km north of Oviedo at a junction with theAutovía A-8 nearGijón on theAtlantic Coast.
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