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| Route information | |
| Maintained byCheshire West and Chester Council | |
| Major junctions | |
| West end | Mollington |
| Major intersections |  A494 road  M56 motorway  A41 road  A5032 road B5132 road  M53 motorway B5132 road M56 motorway A56 road |
| East end | Hapsford |
| Location | |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Counties | Cheshire |
| Primary destinations | Ellesmere Port |
| Road network | |
TheA5117 is aroad inCheshire,England. It runs betweenShotwick(53°14′15″N2°59′15″W / 53.2374°N 2.9875°W /53.2374; -2.9875 (A5117 road (western end))) andHelsby(53°15′41″N2°46′53″W / 53.2613°N 2.7814°W /53.2613; -2.7814 (A5117 road (eastern end))) and connects theA550 at Woodbank to theM56. As such it forms a northerly bypass toChester and a shorter route between the North West andNorth Wales than theA55.
The road, which was originally known as the "Shotwick – Helsby Bypass", was completed in the mid-1930s. The construction was contemporaneous to other major transport projects in the region such as theEast Lanc Road and the opening of the firstMersey tunnel. The road was envisaged to become part of a link that connected theA56 fromManchester toNorth Wales via theJubilee Bridge atQueensferry, Flintshire. Several sections of the road were constructed in concrete. Vehicles experience an up and down vertical motion due to the need for "summit and valley" drainage as the road crosses the flood plain of theRiver Gowy.Poplar trees were planted along the road (most are now only adjacent to the short section passedStanlow Refinery).
The new road was planned to be eventually incorporated into a dualled trunk road that would connect the North West of England with the industries of North Wales. However, with the outbreak of theSecond World War, all major civil engineering projects were cancelled for the duration of conflict. In 1946 theMinistry of War Transport issued theShowing Future Pattern of Principal National Routes which called for a new type of highway that would be restricted to specified classes of vehicle; which led to theSpecial Roads Act 1949.[1][2] In 1947 the first proposal for a motorway across northCheshire was mooted in a report commissioned byCheshire County Council,[3] with a line for the route of the motorway being agreed in 1958 between the council and theMinistry of Transport and Civil Aviation.[4] The first section, announced in November 1963 by thetransport ministerErnest Marples, was a southwards extension of thePrincess Parkway fromWythenshawe inManchester to theA56 andA556 atBowdon which entered theTrunk Road Programme for 1967/1968.[4] Construction began in 1968,[5] and the motorway opened in stages between 1971 and 1981:[6]
By the late seventies, the M56 had approached the Helsby end of the A5117 road. Since the 1960s, the road had been marked out as athree-lane single carriageway, where the middle lane was known popularly as the "suicide" lane because overtaking vehicles drove towards each other at speed from both directions. Despite the original intention of the road's 1930 planners for it to be incorporated into a major highway (along its entire length, it was built with a wide width and setback bridge parapets for additional lanes, and extra drainage channels to accommodate a bigger road), when it came to building the final section of the M56 into North Wales, the road had been deemed obsolete and too costly to upgrade. Instead a new southerly route was chosen, which opened in 1981. The M56 crosses the Gowy on a purpose-built embankment made ofsandstone before it reaches a new junction with theM53 atStoak.[7]
As the route of the M56 bypassed the A5117 road, it was relegated to a secondary route between the M56 and theA55. It continues to be used as an alternative to the motorway but for much of its length it remains single carriageway in both directions apart from a short duelled section nearElton, Cheshire.
The road is dualled west of the M56. There is roundabout with theA540 and atDunkirk at the western terminus of the M56. East of the junction the road issingle carriageway and crosses theA41 by way of a roundabout atBackford Cross. The A5117 intersects theM53 at Junction 10. This junction is just east ofCheshire Oaks Designer Outlet. The road then continues almost parallel to the M56, which it intersects at Junction 14, at which there is aMotorway service area. The road then continues south east to terminate where it joins theA56 at Helsby.
The upgrading of the A5117 on a section west of theM56 motorway, Dunkirk roundabout to Sealand was started in 2006 because that section was regularly congested. The improvement converted the road tograde separated two-lanedual carriageway standard.[8] The British Government at the time decided that a motorway standard M56 extension would be too environmentally damaging, and instead opted to utilise part of the existing road while providing off-line bypasses for all of the at-grade junctions. The improvements tied in with completed works over theWelsh border which upgraded theA550 to a standard similar to that of motorways. Work started in late 2006 and was completed in 2008.
Roads in Zone 5 of theGreat Britain road numbering scheme | ||
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53°15′35″N2°53′02″W / 53.2597°N 2.8839°W /53.2597; -2.8839 (A5117 road)