A453 road

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Coordinates: 52°48′03″N 1°22′16″W / 52.80089°N 1.37106°W / 52.80089; -1.37106
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

A453 shield
A453
A52
northeast end52°56′43″N 1°09′12″W / 52.9453°N 1.1532°W / 52.9453; -1.1532
Location
CountryUnited Kingdom
Road network
←
A454

The A453 road was formerly the main

unclassified roads following the construction of the parallel M42-A42 link around 1990. The M42 was originally meant to pass further north than it does, and to join the M1 at Sandiacre in Derbyshire. The M42/A42 does not enter Derbyshire, but instead joins the M1 closer to the A453 junction at Kegworth. The A42 shadows the former A453 from Appleby Magna to Castle Donington. The road historically connected the East Midlands with the West Midlands
.

Route

Perry Barr to Tamworth

The southern stretch of the existing A453 runs as a non-trunk route from the

Roman road Ryknild Street. In Upper Witton there is a roundabout and Perry Barr fire station is on the left next to Perry Common library, with The College High School on the right, and there are a crossroads and roundabout, with left turns for Kingstanding, and the road passes through Perry Common. On the right is St Mary's College, Oscott, a Roman Catholic seminary of the Archdiocese of Birmingham
, and the road meets Chester Road (A452) at a crossroads.

In Boldmere the road continues after the crossroads as College Road, but becomes Jockey Road where the B4149 meets from the left at a roundabout at New Oscott. It crosses the Cross-City Line with Sutton Coldfield Grammar School for Girls on the left. Near St Peter's Church in Maney and the Horse and Jockey pub it runs concurrently with the A5127 through the town centre of Sutton Coldfield, splitting in two one-way sections at a roundabout, and passing Sutton Coldfield railway station. It passes over and under two railway lines, then passes the police and fire station, with Birmingham Metropolitan College (former Sutton Coldfield College) and Bishop Vesey's Grammar School on the right.

Bassetts Pole

The original route of the A453 separates from the A5127 at the Tamworth Road junction at

Lichfield at Hints. When the A38 was dualled, the A453 was moved to the west, to meet at the Bassetts Pole roundabout. This was not only the meeting point of the Birmingham to Nottingham road, and the A38 (former A446), but is also the meeting point of Warwickshire, Staffordshire and the former West Midlands county. At the roundabout is the Bassetts Pole Harvester, and a McDonald's. As a dual-carriageway trunk road at Carroway Head, it meets the B4151 from the left (for Roughley), and becomes the parish boundary between Hints and Drayton Bassett, and a single carriageway, as Sutton Road. It is only a trunk road for 3 miles (4.8 km) until it meets the A5, after crossing the Heart of England Way, Bourne Brook and the former A5, now the B5404, at Mile Oak, Fazeley
.

Entering Tamworth

As the non-trunk Bonehill Road it crosses the

Saxon kingdom
, with its capital as Tamworth. Previously the A453 continued along Bonehill Road then across Lady Bridge and along Aldergate in Tamworth town centre.

Former route through Ashby de la Zouch

The downgraded former middle section continued through Tamworth and

A6005
.

Breedon on the Hill to Kegworth

East Midlands Airport

The only part of the section between Tamworth and the M1 now designated as the A453 is a short new link west from the limited-access A42 junction 14 to the old route in

Central Networks East (former East Midlands Electricity, owned by PPL Corporation
since April 2011. This section also serves several large hotels associated with the airport.

Kegworth to Nottingham

The A453 becomes trunk road again just north of M1 junction 23A where it joins a spur of the A42 at a roundabout on the parish boundary of

Donington Park services were added in July 1999. It runs parallel to the motorway to M1 junction 24, to link to the motorway and the A50 road. On the opposite side of the M1 from Molehill Farm, on 8 January 1989, the Kegworth air disaster took place. There is a right turn (Ashby Road) for Kegworth, which is the continuation of the former B road route across the airfield. This section of the A453 from junction 24 of the M1 to the airport was opened as the £250,000 Kegworth Link Road on 3 September 1975 by a local county councillor, Mrs Kathleen Wildsmith. The road was built by Galliford and Sons
. Previously traffic went straight through Kegworth. There are plans to bypass Kegworth from the south, to join the A453 roundabout at the Donington Park services roundabout.

Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station

The A453 then continues as a trunk road from the M1 for the remaining 11 miles (18 km) to Nottingham, with most of its traffic originating from the A50, and the rest from the A42. This section of the road follows the route of the former B679. A new section of road was built from junction 24 of the M1 to

Nottingham railway station directly shadows the A453, to the north. There is a left turn for the power station, owned by E.ON UK, and Thrumpton. After Thrumpton the road follows a former unclassified road (Green Street) to Clifton. There are two left turns for Barton in Fabis. The road ascends the top of Brands Hill and Mill Hill
, where it enters the City of Nottingham as Barton Lane.

A new roundabout gives access to the

Hardy & Hanson's pub) on the left. It passes the site of the now demolished (March 2012) Man of Trent on the right. It passes Clifton police station on the right, then the Clifton campus of Nottingham Trent University on the left, as Clifton Lane. The road here became a dual carriageway in the early 1970s when the Clifton Bridge was dualled, with an exit for the B679 (the former route), for West Bridgford, and meets the A52 at an interchange. The interchange was built when the bridge was dualled in 1972. It crosses the Trent concurrently with the A52, then exits to the east as Queens Drive where it is no longer a trunk road. This section of road opened as the B679 when the first Clifton Bridge was opened in May 1958. It later became the A6019 (now a shorter road next to the railway station), and took a course slightly to the east.[5]
The road was dualled in the late 1970s.

Experian on Queens Drive

To the left, on the side of the

Speedo International Limited and the ng2 business park). There is a left turn for Castle Bridge Road and the Castle Marina Retail Park[6]), and it passes the Riverside Retail Park on the left. The road widens again, and at traffic lights Waterway Street West (A6019) leaves to the right, which is the direction for through-traffic. The road ahead, the terminus of the A453, crosses the railway line, then the Nottingham Canal, passing HMRC on the left, and meets Castle Boulevard (the former A453, now A6005) next to the former Nottingham Post
building.

Upgrades

The only dual-carriageway section between the M1 and Clifton next to the power station

As of 2007 the section between the M1 motorway and Nottingham city centre required a major upgrade as it could no longer cope with the volumes of traffic that used it. From the morning peak until around 1100am, the traffic could often back up from the

Ratcliffe on Soar
power station adding around 10 to 15 minutes to the journey time along this route. The problems are worse in term time where the light controlled pedestrian crossing at the university can stop traffic so often that the long tailbacks described are caused. There is a marked difference to the levels of traffic on this section outside term time.

In March 2006 the

Communities and Local Government approved the proposals with some minor modifications.[9] Work was expected to start in early 2013[10] and, in January 2013, a Highways Agency press release confirmed that work had begun.[11]

The 2011

Autumn Statement announced planned investment of £160m in widening the road between Nottingham, the M1 and East Midlands Airport, one of a series of supply-side measures which the government was undertaking "to rebalance and strengthen the economy in the medium term".[12]

Parts of the A453 between the M1 and Clifton Bridge were due to be closed in July and August 2013, but work has been postponed until late August as it clashed with the closure of Nottingham railway station for major track and signalling replacement.

These upgrade works were completed in June 2015 and the road is now two lane dual carriageway from the M1 to the junction for the Clifton park and ride and then four lane single carriageway through the suburb of Clifton to where the road meets the A52.

Safety

In 1989, British Midlands plane crashed between the M1 and A453, killing 47 people. It was going to land at the

East Midlands airport
, located only a few metres away. No vehicles were destroyed but some of the street lights were damaged.

In June 2008 the Road Safety Foundation announced that a 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) single carriageway stretch of the A453 between the A38 and Tamworth was the most improved road for fatal and serious injury accidents. With an 88% reduction in crashes resulting in death and disabling injuries was rated as Green by the Foundation. Staffordshire County Council have undertaken a number of measures to upgrade the road including traffic lights, speed limit reduction, village gateway treatment, central islands and improved

pedestrian facilities
. These resulted in a reduction in fatal and serious collisions from eight in 2001–3 to one in 2004–6.

Flyover at the A52 in Lenton

Remembrance Way

As of March 2015 the dual carriageway section between the M1 J24 and the Clifton park & ride is known as "Remembrance Way" in honour of the 453 British servicemen and women who at that time had lost their lives in Afghanistan.[13]

References

  1. ^ "Directions to Bonehill Rd/A453". Google Maps. Retrieved 12 April 2013.
  2. ^ "Directions to Wilford Rd/A453". Google Maps. Retrieved 12 April 2013.
  3. ^ "A453 history". Archived from the original on 10 September 2012. Retrieved 23 July 2011.
  4. ^ CBRD maps Archived 10 March 2013 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ A648
  6. ^ Castle Marina Retail Park
  7. ^ "Highways Agency – A453 Widening (M1 Junction 24 to A52 Nottingham)". Highways.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 5 November 2008. Retrieved 15 June 2012.
  8. ^ Dualling shelved June 2010
  9. ^ "A453 Birmingham to Nottingham (M1 junction 24 to A52) improvement" (PDF). Department for Transport. 29 March 2012. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 June 2012. Retrieved 1 April 2012.
  10. ^ "A453 road widening scheme to start in 2013". BBC News Online. 30 March 2012. Retrieved 1 April 2012.
  11. Highways Agency. 11 January 2013. Archived from the original
    on 20 January 2013. Retrieved 13 January 2013.
  12. ^ H M Treasury, Autumn Statement 2011, November 2011, Annex A, p. 53, accessed 16 August 2022
  13. ^ "A453 renamed Remembrance Way in honour of fallen". BBC News. 11 March 2015.

External links

52°48′03″N 1°22′16″W / 52.80089°N 1.37106°W / 52.80089; -1.37106

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