Talk:A5 road (Great Britain)

This article is rated B-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects:

Highways: United Kingdom High‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject Highways, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of highways on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.HighwaysWikipedia:WikiProject HighwaysTemplate:WikiProject HighwaysHighways articles High This article has been rated as High-importance on the project's importance scale. This article is supported by the United Kingdom Roads Task Force. UK geography Mid‑importance Mid This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale. Bedfordshire Low‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject Bedfordshire, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Bedfordshire on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.BedfordshireWikipedia:WikiProject BedfordshireTemplate:WikiProject BedfordshireBedfordshire articles Low This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale. The infobox box status of this article has been marked as: Complete inactive .BuckinghamshireWikipedia:WikiProject BuckinghamshireTemplate:WikiProject BuckinghamshireBuckinghamshire articles

Warwickshire Low‑importance

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Warwickshire, a collaborative effort to improve Wikipedia's coverage of Warwickshire. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks. Please also feel free to join in the discussions on the project's talk page.WarwickshireWikipedia:WikiProject WarwickshireTemplate:WikiProject WarwickshireWikiProject Warwickshire articles Low This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

This article seems to have a great deal of obsessive, nerdish detail. Do we really need to know every petrol station that the road passes, and all the numbers of the interescting roads? Reminds me of that Monty Python sketch, where the boring old bloke arrives at the B&B... Anyway, I really think the article is very boring and needs ot be cut down. There are surely a lot more interesting things that can be written rather than the trainspotters version we have now? Graham 23:52, 6 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Fine with me - suggest that you have a go at re-edit to a slimmer version.

Velela 07:34, 7 September 2005 (UTC)[reply

]

agreed - which is why I've added the {{

talk | cont ] — 20:05, 18 December 2006 (UTC)[reply

]

I disagree with this, the article is now too vague. It doesn't even mention Atherstone which the A5 originally passed straight through and has had a bypass since the 70's, in the Route or in Primary Destinations, yet lists Nuneaton and Hinckley that have nothing to do with this road, those places are not on this roads route . As a user who happened to look at this and the Two roads listed above, my opinion is that the routes are too vague, they are just a list, and an incomplete list at that of places that the roads pass through or goes near. That is not to me a description of a road route. A description of a road route should list all towns on it's route and all roads with numbers that it intersects, also any canal, rivers or railways it crosses. Canals and rivers are labelled on roads. If they're important enough to be labelled on a road surely they're encyclopaedic and should be in the route description. Madhatter1uk 23:20, 13 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Unfortunately, the DoT lists Nuneaton and Hinkley as primary destinations on the route, even though the aren't actually on it! [See the green signs]. That is the policy as decided at

Wikipedia:WikiProject UK Roads

so you need to go there to challenge that policy. Also, the route of the A5 is its route today, not its route last year or ten years ago or its route when it was designated initially.

There is a longer discussion of this below (referring to the material that was deleted from the main article). The result is loss of character as you say but it really had become difficult to find the wheat among all the chaff. --

talk) 17:21, 1 September 2008 (UTC)[reply

]

Route

London to Milton Keynes

Starting at

Borough of Milton Keynes at Little Brickhill, where there is large roundabout with the A4146 (for Leighton Buzzard and Aylesbury) and a local road (for Woburn Sands

). The section just before Little Brickhill forms part of the boundary between modern Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes Borough.

Milton Keynes to the A43 at Towcester

Little Brickhill is bypassed at the start of the long

multiplexes with the A422 from Bedford. It is crossed by the North Buckinghamshire Way. This section bypasses Stony Stratford and crosses the River Great Ouse, which is where the road enters Northamptonshire and the district of South Northamptonshire. The dual carriageway ends at a five-way traffic-light-controlled roundabout with the A422 from Buckingham, the A508 from Northampton, and the old A5 back through Old Stratford

and Milton Keynes (as Watling Street).

The next section to Towcester is very straight and passes

Towcester Race Course then goes straight through the busy town, passing the Sponne School and crossing the River Tove, before meeting the A43

at a roundabout. This roundabout is very busy at peak times and the junction design is not suited to the volume of traffic on the A43.

A43 to Watford Gap

North of here, the road is less straight, with three-lane "suicide lane" sections or very wide two-lane sections (previously three lanes in the 1960s), and carries considerable numbers of trucks heading between the A43 and the distribution centres near Rugby [1]. At Weedon Bec, the road crosses the West Coast Main Line and Grand Union Canal twice, and tributaries of the River Nene and Nene Way. There are traffic lights and a crossroads with the A45 at Weedon, and the BP Freeways Motors. North of Weedon, the road is followed by the West Coast Main Line for many miles.

It crosses the Grand Union Canal again twice just before the junction with the B5385 for the village of

Watford Gap service station on the M1. The West Coast Main Line passes under the road and the road is crossed by the Jurassic Way. One mile further north is Watford Gap itself, where the road deviates to the west, away from the course of Watling Street over the M45, adjacent to the M1/M45 intersection and on towards Kilsby

.

Watford Gap to Hinckley

Turning north again at

aircraft warning lights

).

The road passes near the ancient

Magna Park [2] distribution centre, built on the old Bitteswell airfield [3]. From here to Hinckley, the road is a few feet inside Leicestershire. Near Hinckley, at High Cross (Venonae), it crosses the Fosse Way Roman road, now the B4455, though once the A46. In Roman times this intersection was one of the most important in Britain, being almost the dead centre of the country. Today it is a very open rural area. The road alternates every few miles between single and dual carriageway, which it does allow plenty of opportunities for overtaking, not possible south of Rugby. The road intersects with the M69

(and B4109) at junction 1. Further north is the Three Pots Service Station.

Hinckley to Tamworth

At Hinckley, the road crosses the

Birmingham to Peterborough Line and meets the A47 at a roundabout and staggered junction. The road is now a few feet inside Warwickshire. Near Caldecote and the staggered junction for the A444 is the entrance of the testing ground of MIRA

.

The road crosses the River Anker near an ancient Roman settlement close to Mancetter. It bypasses Atherstone with the former route being the B4116, passing close to the Queen Elizabeth School [4] and crossing the West Coast Main Line and Coventry Canal. There is a roundabout with another separate section of the B4116. There are two more roundabouts and a junction for the Birch Coppice distribution park [5], which is the site of a former colliery. It meets the M42 at junction 10 and the Tamworth service area.

Tamworth to Cannock

The next section, in

Birmingham & Fazeley Canal and meets the A453 (and B5404 leading to Hopwas) again at a grade-separated junction near the Sir Robert Peel Hospital. The road then continues along the Fazeley to Weeford dual-carriageway section, which opened in 2005

. This new section crosses the

National Trust

which is accessible from the A5127 (north).

The next dual-carriageway section of road goes under the

traffic lights) for the B5011 and A5195 (formerly the B5011 which heads to Burntwood and the M6 Toll junction T6), after which the road crosses the Wyrley and Essington Canal, near the Chasewater Reservoir and Holland Park. On the left is Watling St Primary School and Brownhills Community Technology College. The road meets the A452 from Sutton Coldfield, before entering Staffordshire again. There is the Turf Island roundabout with the B4154, close to the Norton Canes service area. The road is now next to the M6 Toll for a couple of miles, where there is a junction for Norton Canes

.

Cannock to Telford

At Cannock, it crosses over the M6 Toll at a junction with the A34 and A460. The dual-carriageway A460 heading north has access to the Orbital Centre retail park. To the south on the A34 is Great Wyrley. From the A449 roundabout there is another garage. The road passes under Telford's Shropshire Union Canal aqueduct and past Belvide Reservoir, and then runs along part of the northern boundary of Weston Park, at which point the road is heading due west. The road enters Shropshire at the A41 roundabout. At Telford, it deviates from the old route and meets the A442 and the M54 at junction 5. This is very close to the central shopping area of Telford.

Telford to the Welsh Border

From Telford, it multiplexes with the M54 for a short stretch. The old route is now the B5061 and towards Shrewsbury the B4380. At junction 7 of the M54, the A5 resumes. The A5/A49 17-mile £79m dual-carriageway Telford-Shrewsbury Bypass opened in August 1992.

Here the road passes close to The Wrekin. Nesscliffe has been bypassed by a dual carriageway [6]. The A5/A483 ten-mile £18m Oswestry Bypass opened in December 1986. After this Shropshire section, the A5 enters Wales just west of Chirk and leaves the A483 multiplex.

English Border to Holyhead

It continues through the middle of the towns of

Bangor

.

The A5 then crosses

George IV

en route to Ireland).