A69 road

A69 road shield

A69 road
Route information
Part of
Length: 54 mi (87 km)
Major junctions
East end: West Denton
  A1 A1 road
A6085 A6085 road
A68 A68 road
A6079 A6079 road
A686 A686 road
A6071 A6071 road
A689 A689 road
[[Image:Motorway Left.svg|[ |x30px|link=]] M6 motorway
A7 A7 road
West end: Carlisle
Location
Primary
destinations:
Hexham
Road network

The A69 is a major northern trunk road in England, running east-west across the Pennines, through the counties of Tyne and Wear, Northumberland and Cumbria. Originally the road started in Blaydon, but since the creation of the A1 Western Bypass around Newcastle upon Tyne, it now starts at Denton Burn a suburb of Newcastle upon Tyne.

The route from the A1 junction to Carlisle City Centre is 54 miles (87 km).[1]

Settlements on the route

Places with parentheses are indicative of historically being on the A69, but have now been bypassed

Description of the route

The road runs westwards from the A1 through the suburbs of Denton Burn and West Denton before a junction with the A6085 and the B323. It continues west and passes over what was Hadrian's Wall, which until now has been south of the road, at Milecastle 13 on the wall. Hereafter the road is always south of the wall. The road carries on up the Tyne valley, bypassing the village of Corbridge and the market town Hexham. The A69 crosses the River Tyne west of Hexham (Constantius Bridge), re-crosses it west of the village of Haydon Bridge, and yet again as it bypasses Haltwhistle.

After crossing the border into Cumbria, the A69 by-passes the town of Brampton, before coming to a roundabout junction with the A689 road. The A69 turns left here, and travels through the village of Warwick Bridge, which is planned to be by-passed in the future. Following a short piece of dual carriageway, the A69 comes to Junction 43 of the M6 motorway, which skirts the eastern edge of Carlisle.

The A69 into Carlisle has the name Warwick Road, and is known to be one of the most congested roads in the county. At Saint Aidan's Church, the A69 turns right up Victoria Place, and meets the A7 road at a busy traffic-light controlled crossroads, where it terminates.

The road forms part of the unsigned Euroroute E18. It is maintained by RoadLink.

Standard of route

The A69 is a major route linking the north-east and north-west of England, and as such has primary status throughout. For about 20 miles (30 km) between its start at Newcastle and the Hexham by-pass the A69 is dual carriageway standard, and is largely grade separated. The rest of the route, apart from a short dual carriageway section near the M6 Junction 43 is single carriageway, with occasional climbing lanes.

Haydon Bridge bypass

Haydon Bridge was the last village on the A69 in Northumberland to have a bypass. This was officially opened on Wednesday 25 March 2009 and passes to the south of the village with a new bridge over the River South Tyne to the west of the village.[2]

Safety

A report on the A69 in 2011 noted that in the previous year 82 accidents were recorded with 130 injuries, 10 serious injuries and four deaths.[3] Campaigning has been ongoing to get the section from Hexham to Carlisle dualled to allow vehicles to overtake safely.

References

  1. ↑ "A69 - Roader's Digest: The SABRE Wiki". www.sabre-roads.org.uk. Retrieved 2 November 2015.
  2. ↑ Coulter, David. "End of a long road for campaigners". Hexham Courant (27 March 2009): 9.
  3. ↑ "News & Star | Tynedale: MP takes A69 dualling plea to the Chancellor". www.newsandstar.co.uk. Retrieved 2 November 2015.

Coordinates: 54°58′37″N 2°19′32″W / 54.97691°N 2.32543°W / 54.97691; -2.32543

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 12/28/2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.