A5300 Road
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The A5300 or Knowsley Expressway is a major road in
Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial and metropolitan county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Greater Manchester to the east, Cheshire to the south, the Wales, Welsh county of Flintshire across ...
,
England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
. It runs from its junction with the
A562 The A562 is a road in England which runs from Liverpool to Warrington. Route Parliament Street At Liverpool, the road is known at first as Parliament Street. Upper Parliament Street to Speke Boulevard It then becomes Upper Parliament Street ...
to its junction with the M62, where it becomes the M57, providing a major north–south route through the borough. Along its course it crosses the
Liverpool to Manchester Line Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...
Southern route. The road cost £47.3 million () when it was constructed during 1995–1996.


History

The idea of the extension dates back to the early 1970s, when
Lancashire County Council Lancashire County Council is the upper-tier local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Lancashire, England. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashire is smaller than the ceremonial county, which additionally includes Blackburn with Dar ...
was responsible for the region. When Knowsley Metropolitan Borough came into existence around 1986, they prioritised the need for construction of the route and in 1988, appointed consultants to examine the feasibility. Following traffic surveys, it was confirmed that a dual carriageway link road was needed. In total, nine alternate routes were assessed for consideration but many were rejected on environmental grounds. In 1989, Knowsley approached the
Department for Transport The Department for Transport (DfT) is a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for the English transport network and a limited number of transport ...
regarding funding for their preferred route and arranged a 50% grant towards the cost. A public inquiry was needed due to 48 pieces of land needed from private owners to build the road on.
Balfour Beatty Balfour Beatty plc () is an international infrastructure group based in the United Kingdom with capabilities in construction services, support services and infrastructure investments. A constituent of the FTSE 250 Index, the company is active ac ...
were confirmed as the chosen constructor in the summer of 1993. Initial groundwork commenced in September 1993 and during early construction, ancient roof tiles dating back to 167 AD were unearthed alongside the path of the new road. The Expressway was constructed during 1995–1996, during which time over of woodland was planted along the embankments. The road took around two and a half years to construct, which involved re-routing streams and planting around half a million trees. The road was opened on 15 April 1996 by Eddie O'Hara MP and the first cars travelled along the road from 2pm the same day. It was estimated that the road would take around 35,000 vehicles each day. During development, Knowsley schools ran a competition for their school pupils to name the new road. The competition was won by a Halsnead Community Primary School pupil who named it the Knowsley Expressway. As with other projects, the A5300 is a downgraded extension of a motorway, in this case the M57.


Improvements

In 2016, Knowsley Council announced a £5.3m investment to improve the expressway's southern junction with Speke Road, to focus on reducing congestion during peak time and ensure future demand can be met by expected economic growth.


References


External links


Aerial Photo
Roads in England Roads in Merseyside {{England-road-stub