A15 road
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The A15 is a major road in England. It runs north from Peterborough via Market Deeping, Bourne, Sleaford and Lincoln before disappearing at its junction with the M180 near Scawby. The road re-emerges ten miles east, and continues north past Barton-upon-Humber and over the Humber Bridge before terminating at Hessle near Kingston-upon-Hull.
It is Peterborough's main connecting road from the south to the A1(M), joining near Stilton, at Norman Cross, though this short stretch is only single carriageway and has many sets of traffic lights and speed cameras. Going north, it used to go through Market Deeping until the summer of 1998; Bourne is about to be bypassed after many years of traffic queues. Sleaford and Silk Willoughby until around 1991 were on the A15, which slowed traffic down chronically as the traffic went through the shopping area and across a level crossing on a difficult corner. On the route to Lincoln, the road goes near to two RAF bases - RAF Digby, which is used for communications and not aircraft, and across the end of the runway of RAF Waddington, which has AWACS and Nimrod aircraft. Through Lincoln, traffic takes a hilly route, and a new eastern bypass to the A158/A46 junction has been announced. North of Lincoln, the A15 follows the Roman road, Ermine Street past the Lincolnshire Showground (http://www.lincolnshireshowground.co.uk) and Riseholme College of Agriculture (http://www.lincoln.ac.uk/home/lincoln/riseholme), now part of the University of Lincoln. The road used to be straight, but with RAF Scampton becoming a base for V bombers in the 1950s, the runway had to be extended and the road now has a curved diversion. Overtaking is difficult as the road, although straight, is undulating. It passes close to Kirton in Lindsey, home of an RAF base much used in World War II, with the communications pylon still visible. From here, the A15 used to go through Hibaldstow and Brigg. Hibaldstow has an airfield now used for parachuting competitions by Target Skysports, and was a wartime fighter airfield as well. A new section of road was added in early 1990, that follows the old Ermine Street in North Lincolnshire, with a much flatter, wider and safer road, to join the M180 at junction 4, near AOL obscenity-filter-unfriendly Scunthorpe. The route of the A15 now becomes part of the three-laned M180; this section was opened on September 2nd 1977, and the A15 section along Ermine Street was planned to be opened at the same time, but it had to wait thirteen years. This ten mile section of motorway never ever sees hold ups. The build up of traffic to Grimsby prompted calls for the Brigg bypass for many years, but the Flixborough explosion of 1974 made it more of an emergency. At junction 5, the A15 reforms at the dual-grade roundabout, and continues north as an excellent dual carriageway which carries about as little traffic as the M180. The M180 drops to two lanes under this roundabout and continues to Grimsby and Immingham as the A180, which has a logbook of many drivers falling asleep over its hypnotic concrete surface. The A15 towards the Humber Bridge, goes directly the runways of the former RAF Bomber Command airfield at Elsham Wold. This section was opened in 1981, before the opening of the bridge. The section across the Humber was opened on the 17th of July 1981, by the Queen, and was the worlds longest single span bridge until 1997. The tolls are north of the bridge.
According to the AA (http://www.theaa.com), the route is 95 miles long, and should take 2 1/4 hours. Norman Cross - Bourne takes 33 minutes, Bourne to Lincoln takes 46 minutes and Lincoln to the Humber Bridge takes 54 minutes.
External Links
- A15 according to the SABRE website. (http://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/roadlists/f99/15.html)
- Target Skysports at Hibaldstow. (http://www.targetsky.demon.co.uk)