A55 road

The A55 at Warren Mountain

The A55, also known as the North Wales Expressway, is a major road in Britain. Its entire length is a dual carriageway primary route, with the exception of the point where it crosses the Britannia Bridge over the Menai Strait. All junctions are grade separated except for the two roundabouts either side of Penmaenmawr. The road originally ran from Chester to Bangor but was extended parallel to the A5 across Anglesey right into Holyhead Docks in 2001. The road improvements have been part funded with European money as the route is designated Euroroute E22 to Dublin.

The A55 runs west from its junction with the M53 motorway near Chester, where it is known as the Chester southerly bypass, crossing the River Dee and the Welsh border before passing close to Broughton then passing north of Buckley and Northop. There is a major climb westbound between Broughton and Buckley (Junctions 35a to 35) but with no crawler lane! The road then climbs up onto the flanks of Halkyn Mountain passing to the south of Holywell with major climbs between Northop and Halkyn (Junctions 33 and 32b) and Halkyn and Holywell Summit (Junctions 32 and 31). This section of road is notorious for poor weather conditions including fog, ice and snow in winter months. In fine weather this section provides extensive views over the Dee estuary to Liverpool and beyond. The steep descent towards St Asaph is down Rhuallt Hill (Junctions 29 to 28), which also provides the first views of the mountains of Snowdonia in the distance. There is a crawler lane on Rhuallt Hill for eastbound traffic. The road bypasses St Asaph and runs along the North Wales coast passing Abergele, Colwyn Bay, Rhos On Sea, Conwy, Penmaenmawr , Llanfairfechan and Bangor before heading onto the island of Anglesey, where it ends in Holyhead where ferries connect with the Irish ports of Dún Laoghaire and Dublin.

The construction of the coastal section of the road involved major civil engineering works, with hard rock tunnels passing through the cliffs in two places. In the Eastbound direction, the road still uses the original cliffhugging route. Plans to rectify this by building another tunnel parallel to the current Westbound tunnels are in motion.

The crossing of the estuary of the River Conwy is by means of a tunnel that was constructed as pre-formed concrete sections and then floated into position over a pre-prepared trench in the bed of the estuary. The use of a tunnel followed an extensive public consultation which ruled out another bridge on aesthetic ground since it would have damaged the view of the world heritage site Conwy Castle and the two bridges by Robert Stephenson and Thomas Telford. Because of the valuable fishery in the river and also because of the history of heavy metal mining in the catchment of the river, extensive ecological assements were made both prior to the construction of the tunnel and subsequently . These studies finally concluded that no significant environmental damage had been caused.

Part of the route approaching Colwyn Bay is signed as a 70 mph speed limit (as opposed to most of the other sections of the A55, which are the National Speed Limit) and is a non-motorway special road, which has restrictions on access by pedestrian and other traffic, similar to the restrictions applied to a motorway. There is also a stretch passing through Colwyn Bay signed as a 50 mph limit. These restrictions are imposed as added safety precautions because the slip-roads in this stretch are unusually short because of the difficulty of fitting the road into a very narrow area of land.

The final section of the A55 to be dualled was the Anglesey section. This 20 mile (32 km) section extending right into Holyhead Harbour was constructed as PFI scheme where the builders earn a shadow toll based on usage and lane availability. They also have to maintain the road for the extended period of their shadow toll agreement. When travelling eastbound along this section there are fine views of Snowdonia.

History

The A55 partly follows the alignment of the Roman road from Chester (Deva) to Caernarfon (Segontium), particularly from Junction 31 to 30 and Junction 13 to 12. Between Chester and Holywell the alignment of this road is uncertain and between St. Asaph and Aber, the Roman road followed an inland route avoiding the difficulties of the crossing of the Conwy estuary and the cliffs at Penmaenbach and Pen-y-Clip.

[UK Roman Road Map]

A55 Opening dates of major improvements

1932 Penmaenbach Tunnel
1935 Pen-y-Clip Tunnels
1930s St. Asaph to Rhuallt dual carriageway and a short section of 'experimental' concrete road west of St Asaph
1960s Tai'r Miebion to Tan-y-lon dual carriageway east of Bangor
1970 St. Asaph Bypass
1975 Northop Hall Crossroads to East of Gables
1976 Coed-y-Cra to Chaingates (Holywell)
1976 Chester Southerly Bypass (terminating at Broughton)
December 1980 Holywell By-Pass (Stage 1)
March 1981 Diversion East of Abergele
December 1983 Bangor By-Pass
September 1984 Hawarden By-Pass (from a point east of Broughton on the Chester Southerly Bypass to Northop Hall)
December 1984 Llanddulas to Glan Conwy (Colwyn Bay By-Pass, Stage 1)
June 1985 Llanddulas to Glan Conwy (Colwyn Bay By-Pass, Stage 2)
October 1986 Holywell By-Pass (Stage 2)
December 1986 Bodelwyddan By-Pass
June 1989 Penmaenbach Tunnel
June 1989 Northop By-Pass
October 1989 Penmaenmawr and Llanfairfechan By-Passes (excluding Pen-y-Clip Tunnel)
May 1990 Travellers' Inn Improvement
1991 tunnel crossing of the River Conwy
May 1992 Rhuallt Hill Improvement
October 1993 Pen-y-Clip Tunnel
October 1994 Abergwyngregyn Improvement
16th March 2001 Anglesey section (Britannia Bridge to Holyhead)
2000/2004 Penmaenmawr eastbound slip road and grade separation at the summit of the Rhuallt Hill
2004 Improvements to railway underbridges and cliffs at Penmaenbach (eastbound)

External links

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