M180 motorway
|
|
The M180 motorway is a major road in England. The motorway runs east from M18 motorway near Thorne to the junction of the A15 and A180 roads near Humberside Airport. Its twenty-five mile long route passes Scunthorpe and Brigg, as it carries vehicles to the ports of Immingham and Grimsby, on the east coast. The motorway bypass around Brigg was discussed for many years, but the Flixborough explosion gave it more importance, and was built three years later in 1977. The last section to be built was the Trent viaduct which opened in October 1979 by Kenneth Clarke. It was 43 weeks late because of strikes and bad weather.
Three lanes wide for most of its duration (aside from a short two lane section past Scunthorpe), it is pretty much straight and flat.
The M180 has its own spur - the M181. It is somewhat ironic that while the M180 has to make do with a roundabout junction with the M18, its spur has a large, freeflowing trumpet interchange! Due its resounding emptiness, even on busy days, people who own cars with a high top speed have lovingly chosen the M180 for their own private speed demonstration track. At the start of the M180 - the Doncaster North (http://www.moto-way.com/page.cfm?Section=2&location=32) services, owned by Moto, may be the best part for many drivers. Drinking plenty of coffee here will keep your car pointing in the right direction along the motorway.
It was extended in the 1980s, but as the all purpose A180 - a two lane dual carriageway which continued on to Grimsby and Cleethorpes. The road surface of this section is particularly noisy. The lack of observable landscape features, the flat and straight dimensions of the road, and the hypnotic effect of the concrete surface have helped to make it difficult for some drivers to stay awake whilst at the wheel when tired, or have had not enough sleep. Many of the fatalities on the road have been attributed to drivers being asleep at the wheel.
External Links
- CBRD (http://www.cbrd.co.uk/motorway/180.shtml)
- A180 is quietened down. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/humber/4293685.stm)