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A5103 | |
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Route information | |
Maintained by National Highways Manchester City Council | |
Length | 4.9 mi (7.9 km) |
Major junctions | |
North end | Manchester city centre and Hulme |
A6 A62 A34 A57(M) A6010 A5145 M60 A560 M56 | |
South end | M56 motorway Junction 3A and Wythenshawe |
Location | |
Country | United Kingdom |
Primary destinations | Manchester |
Road network | |
The A5103 is a major road in England. It runs from Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester city centre to junction 3 of the M56 motorway and is one of Manchester's principal radial routes.
The original scheme for a new road through the rural area south of Manchester was the design of the urban planner Richard Barry Parker, who envisaged the creation of a parkway – a broad, landscaped highway – to run from the new garden suburb of Wythenshawe, connecting it with Manchester City Centre. [1] [2] Manchester Corporation began construction of the new Princess Parkway in 1929 with a new bridge over the River Mersey. [3] The new road was laid out as a dual carriageway for motor vehicles with a segregated tram track along the central reservation for Manchester Corporation Tramways to run trams into Manchester City Centre. [4]
Princess Road/Princess Parkway was one of two new arterial roads into Manchester built by Manchester Corporation; the other was Kingsway, a few miles to the east, also built as a dual carriageway with reserved tram tracks along the middle. This layout was known as the 'Brodie' system, a new approach to road design that had been pioneered in Liverpool by John Alexander Brodie. [5] [6] [7] The first tracks were laid out in the 1920s, terminating at Southern Cemetery; Manchester Corporation Transport planned to extend the tracks to Northenden and Wythenshawe, but following a change in transport policy in 1930, the Corporation invested in bus services instead. [3] Manchester Corporation Tramways eventually ceased operation in 1949 and the tram tracks were removed. [8]
Parker's scenic Parkway route, running south from Barlow Moor Road to Altrincham Road, was noted for its landscaped verges and rose beds. In its 1945 plan, Manchester Corporation proposed extending the road northwards into the city centre and south through Ollerton and Toft, creating a major traffic route into the city. In 1969, work began to upgrade Princess Parkway to motorway standards, in order to feed into the M56 motorway. To enable this work, Parker's landscaping was removed, with 50,000 trees and shrubs being uprooted, and pedestrian footbridges were installed, and an old country house, Kenworthy Hall, was demolished. [9] [10]
In 1997, the Hulme Arch Bridge designed by Chris Wilkinson Architects and Arup was installed over Princess Road in the Hulme area. [11]
This short section is entirely single-carriageway: it runs in roughly a north–south direction from the junction of the A6 and A62 along Portland Street. It then shares a short section with the A34 (Oxford Street) running west until St Peter's Square. After St Peter's Square, it proceeds south-west along Lower Mosley Street, running past the Manchester Central Convention Complex (formerly Manchester Central station), and the Bridgewater Hall. It then turns south along Albion and Medlock Streets (crossing the Rochdale Canal, the railway viaduct, and the River Medlock), where it meets the Mancunian Way at a roundabout.
This section is entirely dual carriageway primary route leading in a southerly direction. The entire section is officially called Princess Road, but many locals refer to it as Princess Parkway (see below). This section predominantly has a 30 mph (48 km/h) speed limit. Just before the M60 J5, the speed limit goes up to 40 mph.
The road runs through Hulme, Moss Side and Whalley Range, passing William Hulme Grammar School, Whalley Range High School and Southern Cemetery on the way.
This section has many traffic light controlled junctions, including major junctions with the A6010 Manchester middle ring road and A5145 Barlow Moor Road. 0.7 miles (1.1 km) south of its junction with the A5145, the road crosses the River Mersey and meets the M60 motorway at a large free-flow interchange at junction 5. The speed limit also goes up to 40 mph.
This section is entirely dual carriageway trunk road, and is an important link between the M60 Manchester Outer Ring road and the M56 motorway. This section is called Princess Parkway and largely has a 50 mph (80 km/h) speed limit. Between the M56 and M60, the road has two intermediate junctions; with the B5166 towards Northenden and Sale Moor, and with the A560 leading to Gatley, Wythenshawe and Baguley. Between junctions, the A5103 here has four lanes in each direction with no hard shoulder. Between the on-and-off sliproads of the junctions, it has 3 lanes in each direction with hard shoulder. At the southern end, at the A560 junction, the A5103 seamlessly becomes the mainline of the M56 heading towards Manchester Airport, Chester and the M6 motorway. Northbound traffic on the M56 must leave the mainline of the motorway at a sliproad to remain on the M56. Remaining on the mainline leads directly to the A5103.
The M60 motorway, Manchester Ring Motorway or Manchester Outer Ring Road is an orbital motorway in North West England. Built over a 40-year period, it passes through all of Greater Manchester's metropolitan boroughs except for Wigan and Bolton. Most of Manchester is encompassed within the motorway, except for the southernmost part of the city which is served by the M56.
The A57 is a major road in England. It runs east from Liverpool to Lincoln via Warrington, Salford and Manchester, and then through the Pennines over the Snake Pass (between the high moorlands of Bleaklow and Kinder Scout), around the Ladybower Reservoir, through Sheffield and past Worksop. Between Liverpool and Glossop, the road has largely been superseded by the M62, M602 and M67 motorways. Within Manchester a short stretch becomes the Mancunian Way, designated A57(M).
The M56 motorway serves the Cheshire and Greater Manchester areas of England. It runs east to west from junction 4 of the M60 at Gatley, south of Manchester, to Dunkirk, approximately four miles north of Chester. With a length of 33.3 miles (53.6 km), it connects North Wales and the Wirral peninsula with much of the rest of North West England, serves business and commuter traffic heading towards Manchester, particularly that from the wider Cheshire area, and provides the main road access to Manchester Airport from the national motorway network.
The A6144(M) was a motorway in Carrington, Greater Manchester, England. It was known in official documentation as the Carrington Spur Road and built to facilitate the transport of hazardous goods from Shell Chemicals' ethylene oxide plant in Carrington and other industrial estates in Carrington and Broadheath. It was extremely unusual in that it was entirely single carriageway, the only motorway of its kind in the UK as others were dual carriageway for at least some of their length.
The M66, also known as the Bury Easterly Bypass, is a motorway in Lancashire and Greater Manchester, England. It is 8 miles (13 km) long and provides part of the route between the M62 and M60 motorways and the M65, with the rest being provided by the A56.
Wythenshawe is an area of Manchester, England. Historically part of Cheshire, in 1931 Wythenshawe was transferred to the City of Manchester, which had begun building a large housing estate there in the 1920s. With an area of approximately 11 square miles (28 km2), Wythenshawe became the largest council estate in Europe.
Northenden is a suburb of Manchester, in Greater Manchester, England, with a population of 15,064 at the 2021 census. It lies on the south side of the River Mersey, 4 miles (6.4 km) west of Stockport and 5 miles (8.0 km) south of Manchester city centre, bounded by Didsbury to the north, Gatley to the east, Sale to the west and Wythenshawe to the south.
Sharston is an area of Wythenshawe, south Manchester, England. The population at the 2011 census was 16,754.
The A54 road is a road in England linking Chester in Cheshire with Buxton in Derbyshire. Its route through both urban and steep rural areas presents a challenge to Cheshire County Council in maintaining the safety of the road. Many years ago it was the main east–west route in Cheshire. The importance of the A54 through Middlewich and Winsford decreased in the 1970s and 1980s with the building of the M56 motorway and dualling of the A556 at Northwich. The section through Winsford carries approximately 30,000 vehicles per day.
The A56 is a road in England which extends between the city of Chester in Cheshire and the village of Broughton in North Yorkshire. The road contains a mixture of single and dual carriageway sections, and traverses environments as diverse as the dense urban sprawl of inner city Manchester and the lightly populated region of rural east Lancashire. The road includes a short section of trunk road between the end of the M66 motorway near Ramsbottom and the M65 motorway west of Burnley.
The M63 motorway was a major road in the United Kingdom. It was completely renumbered, in 1998, to become a substantial part of the M60 motorway which orbits part of Greater Manchester.
The A5117 is a road in Cheshire, England. It runs between Shotwick (53.2374°N 2.9875°W) and Helsby (53.2613°N 2.7814°W) and connects the A550 at Woodbank to the M56. As such it forms a northerly bypass to Chester and a shorter route between the North West and North Wales than the A55.
The A556 is a road in England which extends from the village of Delamere in Cheshire West and Chester to the Bowdon Interchange in Cheshire East, bordering Greater Manchester. The road contains a mixture of single and dual carriageway sections and forms a large part of the route between Manchester and Chester. It also acts as a major access route to Chester/North Wales to the west and to Manchester to the east for the conurbation of towns and villages around the Dane Valley centering on Winsford and Northwich. The central part, which forms the Northwich Bypass between Davenham and Lostock Gralam, suffers because of the amount of commuter traffic from this area. The part of the route between the M6 motorway Junction 19 and the M56 motorway Junction 7 is a major route into Manchester and has been recently upgraded to a four-lane dual carriageway.
Gatley is a suburb in the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport, Greater Manchester, England, 3 miles north-east of Manchester Airport.
The A560 is a primary route that runs from the A56 in Altrincham, Greater Manchester, to Hattersley, Tameside. It follows a complex route that involves primary route, non-primary route, single and dual carriageway, some complex motorway junctions and, at one point, carriageways running on both sides of the M56 Motorway.
The A538 is a road in England linking Macclesfield, Cheshire to Altrincham in Greater Manchester, through Prestbury, Wilmslow and Hale and providing access to Manchester Airport and the M56 motorway. The road is a Primary route between the A34 Junction in Wilmslow and Manchester Airport / M56 motorway.
The transport infrastructure of Greater Manchester is built up of numerous transport modes and forms an integral part of the structure of Greater Manchester and North West England – the most populated region outside of South East England which had approximately 301 million annual passenger journeys using either buses, planes, trains or trams in 2014. Its position as a national city of commerce, education and cultural importance means the city has one of the largest and most thorough transport infrastructures which is heavily relied upon by its 2.8 million inhabitants in the Greater Manchester conurbation and further afield in the North West region. Public transport comes under the jurisdiction of Transport for Greater Manchester.
Northern Moor is an area of Manchester, England, north of Baguley, west of Northenden and east of Sale, 5 miles south of Manchester city centre. The Tatton family lived from 1540 to 1926 at Wythenshawe Hall in Northern Moor; land around it is now Wythenshawe Park, which was a deer park from 1200 to 1540. In former centuries it was spelt "Northen Moor" and meant "the moor area belonging to Northenden". Until 1931, Northern Moor was part of Cheshire, before Manchester expanded south of the River Mersey and its borders were changed to include Northern Moor and Northenden. The area includes Lawton Moor, and the northern border is now with Sale Moor.
Kingsway is a dual carriageway in Greater Manchester, England, which runs from Levenshulme to Cheadle. It is approximately 7.3 mi (11.7 km) long and is a link road between the city centre and the southern suburbs of Greater Manchester, forming part of the A34. Kingsway was built in the late 1920s between Levenshulme and Parrs Wood, and was originally designed as a combined road and tram route. The tram tracks were eventually removed and the road was later extended to bypass Cheadle and join onto the M60 motorway.
The Airport Line is a tram line of the Manchester Metrolink in Manchester, England, running from Manchester city centre to Manchester Airport via Wythenshawe. It opened in November 2014 as part of phase three of the system's expansion.