A46 road

This article is about the road. For information on the aircraft, see Aero A.46.The A46 is a trunk road in England.

It starts at Cleethorpes, then heads west into Grimsby. It turns south at Caistor, bypasses Market Rasen, then heads toward Lincoln. The eight-mile £19m part-dual-carriageway Lincoln Relief Road opened in December 1985. After bypassing Lincoln, it starts following the route of the old Fosse Way, bar bypasses. The route passes the old RAF Swinderby. This section to the A1 has always been very busy, as it is the main road to Lincoln. On July 10, 2003, the eight-mile (13 km) £28 million dual-carriageway Newark to Lincoln Improvement was opened by David Jamieson. The six-mile (10 km) £34 million Newark-On-Trent Relief Road opened in October 1990. There is a JET garage just south of Farndon. There is a Gulf garage before the A6097 roundabout. The road continues south-west, meeting the A52 near Bingham and passing many speed cameras. Close by is RAF Newton. There is a GSJ with the A606. As it enters Leicestershire, it is going nearly directly south. The Newark to Widmerpool Improvement will make this section grade-separated dual-carriageway, closing the gap in the corridor.

From Widmerpool to the M1, it is dual-carriageway. It meets the A6006 at a grade separated junction (GSJ) near Old Dalby. The B676 meets the road at a GSJ at Six Hills, near the Six Hills Hotel. There is a GSJ near Ratcliffe on the Wreake and Ratcliffe College. The Leicestershire Round crosses here. The road bypasses Syston and multiplexes with the A607 from Melton Mowbray, crossing the Midland Main Line and River Wreake. At a roundabout, the A607 continues southwards. The eight-mile (13 km) £36 million Leicester Western Bypass opened in November 1995. The road crosses the Grand Union Canal then the River Soar, then the first junction is a GSJ with the A6 near Birstall. There is a GSJ with the A5630 near Anstey and the A50 near Groby. The road merges into the M1 motorway at Junction 21A, with a short section of the A46 being motorway which ends at the GSJ with the B5380 (for Kirby Muxloe). This junction is south facing only, with no access to or from the north.

The A46 used to exist between Leicester and Coventry, but it has been replaced by the M69 motorway. Consequently the A46 reappears at Coventry. The five-mile (8 km) £21 million Coventry Eastern Bypass opened in May 1989. At the southern end of that bypass, it merges with the A45 for a short distance before forming a bypass for the Warwickshire towns of Kenilworth and Warwick, and the small village of Leek Wootton The Kenilworth Bypass opened in June 1974, and in some stretches is three-lanes. It meets the M40 motorway at the Longbridge roundabout, one of the busiest motorway junctions in the United Kingdom. The roundabout could not cope with the A46's through-traffic, as well as the A429, although new traffic light sequencing has greatly improved the situation. South of the M40, the A46 follows its original route for a short distance past Snitterfield to Stratford upon Avon. The seven-mile (11 km) £12 million Stratford Northern Bypass opened in June 1987 as the A422. It then turns west along the former A422 to Alcester. From Alcester, the eight-mile (13 km) £19 million dual-carriageway Norton-Lenchwick Bypass opened in August 1995. This road carries the route south to Evesham. The four-mile (6 km) £7 million single-carriageway Evesham Bypass opened in July 1987 as the A435. The one-mile (2 km) £1.3 million Sedgeberrow Bypass opened in May 1989 as the A435. The A46 then runs south for a few miles along the former A435 route, before turning west, on the old A438 route, towards the M5 motorway. The A435 resumes its old course from here southwards.

After a gap filled in by the A435, the A46 reappears on its original route on the south side of Cheltenham. It then heads through Stroud, through Nailsworth, to the M4 motorway. From the M4, the A46 heads to Bath, ending at its junction with the A4 in that town. The three-mile (5 km) £45 million dual-carriageway Batheaston/Swainswick Bypass opened in summer 1996.

Former routes

As the above indicates, the A46 now deviates from its original alignment. There are now two sections where there are gaps of over 10 miles (15 km) where the road simply does not exist at all.

Many of the deviations are bypasses. A46 bypasses Market Rasen, Lincoln, Newark, Syston, Leicester, Coventry, Kenilworth, Warwick, Stratford, Alcester, Evesham and parts of Bath. However, not even all of those towns were originally on the route of the A46. The road never came anywhere near Alcester and Evesham when it was first numbered.

The first major gap in the A46 was created by the opening of the M69 motorway in the late 1970s. This resulted in the original road being downgraded to a mixture of the B4114 and unclassified roads. The second gap was created by the realignment of the road westwards from its original route between Stratford and Cheltenham. What was originally the A46 is now the B4632 and runs through some of the most picturesque parts of the Cotswold Hills. The section of the A46 that ran through Leicester has since redesignated the A5460 (Narborough Road, in the southwest) and A607 (Belgrave Road/Melton Road, in the northeast). The northern part of the A607 deviates from the straight course of the Fosse Way, bypassing the village centres of Thurmaston and Syston.

External links

* SABRE
* Workmen dig up Roman treasure when improving A46.
* Red Arrows salute opening of the Newark to Lincoln Improvement.