A19 road

The A19 is a major road in England, running parallel to and east of the A1 road.

Section 1: Doncaster - Selby

The A19 starts at a junction with the A638 just to the north of Doncaster itself; this junction has been improved in recent years. It then winds its way through the suburb of Bentley and out into the countryside to the north of the urban area.

Much of the A19's course round here runs through the old Yorkshire coalfield, and there's evidence of this on the way with old slag-heaps and colliery buildings.

It then sets off north towards the village of Askern, itself with a history of mining in the area. There are some long straights north of here, and the surrounds are mostly flat as the road heads towards the M62.

From here, the village of Eggborough has been bypassed in recent years, with the new road travelling from the roundabout near the power station (there are 3 power stations in a row at this point, running west-east: Ferrybridge, Eggborough, and Drax, with its enormous chimney, to the east). The A19 then meets its previous alignment to the north of the village, before travelling through the small village of Burn, then before Brayton, it joins the A63. The £44m six mile A63 Selby bypass, to the south of the town opened on June 11th 2004. Before this happened, the road, and all the traffic, headed straight towards the centre of Selby, over a level-crossing and on to a busy traffic-light junction with the A63 from Leeds. The former A19 took the major of the multiplex through the town centre, whilst crossing the old toll bridge and heading on north towards York.

Section 2: Selby - Seaton Burn

The £5m five mile Riccall and Barlby bypass opened in October 1987. This provided better junctions with the A63 (Howden) and A163 (Holme-on-Spalding-Moor). The York Northern By-Pass multiplexes with the A19 as the A1237 – this road is poorly engineered and has frequent roundabouts. The road goes straight through the middle of Shipton by Beningbrough, to the annoyance of many residents. Heading northward the section between York and Thirsk was not helped much by the opening of the £5m three mile Easingwold Bypass in November 1994, as the road remained single carriageway. The residents of Thormanby also look forward to their village being bypassed. North of Thirsk, the A19 becomes a fast dual carriageway with mostly grade separated interchanges, climbing slightly past Knayton and skirting the western edge of the North York Moors then dropping towards the Cleveland Tontine. Eventually after passing the Crathorne/Yarm exit the road hurtles towards Teesside over the Leven Viaduct. About a couple of miles from the Parkway Turn (A174) the road is raised slightly, overlooking Thornaby Industrial Estate and one of Europe's biggest housing estates known as Ingleby Barwick, giving clues that Teesside is imminent. At the Parkway the lighting columns appear then the road widens to 3 lanes, then at Acklam it becomes four before two peel off for the A66 for Stockton-on-Tees and Middlesbrough. At this point the area is surrounded by retail park, and masses of industry arranged round the "cloverstack" A66/A19 interchange. This road was improved in 1998 by widening from 2 to 3 & 4 lanes each way the four mile section between the Parkway and Norton. Even in rush hour the road still flows quite well.

Past Teesside the road climbs to a rural landscape before hitting Peterlee and the surrounding ex-coal-mining villages all competing with place marketing billboards for industries to locate. Of course further up the road at Sunderland Nissan sits beside the A19, just before the Testo's Roundabout. At this point the A19 ended here as the A1 took over to run through the Tyne Tunnel, but the A1 moved to become an accident blackspot by the Angel of the North and the congestion hotspot known as the Western By-pass. To the east the A19 now approaches the Tyne Tunnel, soon to be replicated to offer a real alternative to the A1 during the peak rush. The A19 continues to rejoin the A1 just north of Newcastle.

External Links

• Selby bypass opens June 2004. (http://www.highways.gov.uk/news/articles/2833612.htm)
• Problems with the Selby bypass. (http://www.selby.gov.uk/news_detail.asp?id=234&menuid=2)
• New Tyne crossing on CBRD. (http://www.cbrd.co.uk/futures/upgrade/a19.shtml)
• Shipton by Beningbrough villagers angry over bypass postponementin 2001. (http://www.thisisyork.co.uk/york/archive/2001/12/17/york_news_local12ZM.html)
• Shipton by Beningbrough villagers losing their patience in 2003. (http://www.thisisyork.co.uk/york/archive/2003/10/08/york_news_local40ZM.html)
• Multiple murderer Mark Hobson is caught at a petrol station on A19 at Shipton by Beningbrough. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/north_yorkshire/4300213.stm)