| A6 Road |
Website Links For Road |
Information AboutA6 Road |
|
The A6 is a major Road in England . It currently runs from Luton in Bedfordshire to Carlisle in Cumbria . As set out below (see ''Former route south of Luton''), previously it started in Barnet in Hertfordshire and ran northwest through London Colney to St Albans and then due north via Harpenden to Luton. Running northwest from Luton, the road travels through Bedford , bypasses both Kettering and Market Harborough , continues through Leicester , Loughborough , Derby and Matlock before going through the Peak District to Bakewell , Buxton , Stockport , Manchester , Chorley , Preston , Lancaster , Kendal and Penrith before reaching Carlisle. South of Nottingham, the road is parallelled by the M1 Motorway , and north of Manchester the M6 Motorway approximates its course. LUTON - LEICESTER North of Luton, the one-mile £9.4m dual-carriageway Barton In The Clay Bypass was opened in December 1990. The one-mile £2m Silsoe Bypass opened in February 1981. The one-mile £3m Elstow Bypass opened in early 1983. North of Bedford, the three-mile £26m dual-carriageway Clapham Bypass opened on December 12th 2002, named the '' Paula Radcliffe Way'', after the marathon runner who went to school at nearby Sharnbrook . South of Kettering, the three-mile £10m part-dual-carriageway Rushden & Higham Ferrers Bypass opened on August 14th 2003, where the road meets the A45 . The road still goes through Finedon . There is a Shell garage just north of the village. The two-mile £2.6m Burton Latimer Bypass opened in October 1991. '' Weetabix '' is accessible from the roundabout with the A14. Kettering was bypassed when sections of the east-west corridor A14 were built. Between the A6 junction and A509 junction, there are BP garages, Little Chef and Burger King restaurants on each side of the road. Near the Rothwell junction, there is an Esso garage and McDonalds restaurant on the east-bound carriageway. The five-mile three-lane £11.4m Rothwell - Desborough Bypass opened on August 14th 2003. The road enters Leicestershire at the start of the five-mile £9.5m Market Harborough Bypass, which was opened in June 1992. There is a Texaco garage and McDonalds restaurant at the junction with the B6047 (for Melton Mowbray ) at the north end of the bypass. The A6 still passes through the village centre of Kibworth Harcourt. The three-mile dual-carriageway Great Glen Bypass opened on February 19th 2003, though operated as a dual-carriageway only after April 4th 2003. LEICESTER - PEAK DISTRICT On the outskirts of Leicester, the road passes a Sainsbury's supermarket at Oadby . Further in, it passes an Asda supermarket, then a BP garage, before reaching the outer ring-road (A563), next to Leicester Racecourse . There is a Shell garage just after the roundabout where A563 and A6 join. The road becomes ''London Road''. It passes close to Leicester University , and crosses the Midland Main Line near Leicester Railway Station . In the centre of Leicester, it is subsumed into Leicester's inner ring-road, the A594 . Before this, it went via Charles Street, and before then, down ''Granby Street'' and ''Gallowtree Gate''. Then around the Clock Tower, and along Belgrave Gate. The current route via the Inner Ring Road and Abbey Lane is also altered from the old route, which from Belgrave Gate went via Belgrave Road (along the Fosse Way) as did the old course of the A46 turning left at Melton Turn onto Loughborough Road and then into Birstall Village, where it meets with the current route at the start of the dual carraigeway just before the A46 Leicester Western By-Pass On the northern outskirts of Leicester, the road passes the and Shell garage on both sides of the road near Shardlow . The next section, the A6 Spur, was opened with the A50 in September 1997. The £10.6m dual-carriageway Alvaston Bypass/Improvement opened on 17th December 2003. The road goes through Derby initially along ''London Road'', then ''Pride Parkway'', which is related to the adjacent garage at the Riverside station just before the A610 junction. At Cromford , the is an Esso garage at Ridgewood Motors. Matlock Bath is a Mecca for Motorbikers , and many use the A6 for pleasure and speed. Entering Matlock , the road passes under the Railway and over the River Derwent, meeting the A615 at a roundabout. The road passes through the middle of the town and further north is Darley Dale , where the road passes the hospital and there are crossroads with the B5057, and a Texaco garage at the Two Dales service station. PEAK DISTRICT - CARNFORTH From Matlock the road makes a somewhat unwelcome intrusion into the and to a roundabout with the A623 The four-mile £38m part-dual-carriageway in July 1998, in the distant early years of the Labour Government . Due to build up of traffic in the Stockport area, the same scheme is now going to be built as the A555, to link up east of Stockport with the M60 . In Hazel Grove there is an Esso garage at the London Rd service station. Towards Stockport , there is a Shell garage near the Woodsmoor Railway Station and an Esso garage at the Great Moor service station relatively near the Davenport Railway Station . In the middle of Stockport there is a Texaco garage at the Grosvenor service station. The road continues through Manchester and Salford , and passes through the various mill towns of central Lancashire , notably through Preston and Lancaster . Its route remains paralleled by the M6 Motorway here, including the oldest motorway stretches in the UK. CARNFORTH - CARLISLE There is a and crosses the River Kent . It goes through Heversham , then meets the A590 and multiplexes with the A591, the dual-carriageway Kendal bypass passing a BP garage at the Prizet filling station, before leaving at a GSJ. It passes another nearby BP garage at the Helsington service station and passes through Kendal , where it meets the northern end of the A65 . In Kendal, it passes Kendal College and the Queen Katherine School next to a then meets the A66 at a roundabout next to Penrith Hospital . It takes a central route through , it passes a BP garage at the Carleton service station, an Esso garage at the Harraby Green service station then crosses the River Petteril then the Tyne Valley Railway Line . The A6 finishes at Botchergate in the centre of Carlisle where it transforms seamlessly into the A7 . FORMER ROUTE SOUTH OF LUTON The route of the old A6 south of Luton is now the and A1081. SEE ALSO
EXTERNAL LINKS
|