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The Development of the Arransian Expressway Network2. 1949-1961 Arransia’s failure to develop a comprehensive modern road network after the Great War is often blamed on the Higgins Report of 1950, but the reality is somewhat more complex. Bernard Higgins (1886-1969) was a highly respected academic who was Professor of Industrial Economics at University College, Danby. He was asked to produce recommendations for transport policy over the next 20 years, and in the circumstances of the time his advice that the railways should continue to be regarded as the major land transport mode, and that the main lines should be electrified, was not unreasonable. He did also recommend the construction of a network of modern motor roads, following the example of the Stainton Bypass, and in later years was critical of various governments’ slow progress on roadbuilding, although he never learned to drive himself. The decision to give the railways legal primacy was the government’s, not Higgins’. In fact, the government if anything electrified the railways too quickly, saddling the country with the obsolescent and power-hungry 1500v DC system which would now be extremely expensive to change. The electrification programme left little money for roadbuilding, and progress was slow. The Petersburgh bypass was dualled in 1952, and in 1954 the Kirkby Thore bypass was upgraded to a three-lane road similar to the Stainton bypass. The latter was upgraded to a dual carriageway between 1954 and 1956, but retained its oddly-designed junctions. In retrospect, it was a failing of Scullion’s government in the 1950s that no comprehensive road plan was drawn up, even though the funds were lacking to put it into effect. Progress was slow and piecemeal. The first road that recognisably had all the characteristics of an Expressway was the 11-mile A1 Kirtlebridge Bypass north of Danby, opened in Spring 1958. This was a dual carriageway with access restrictions and an intermediate grade-separated diamond-pattern junction, for the first time with acceleration lanes of decent length. At its southern end it had a grade-separated fork junction with the old A1, and the northern end clearly allowed provision for a continuation. Halfway along was a rest area with its own trumpet-type junction on to the expressway, which featured a large roadhouse-type pub, the Pelican. And all of this is still almost exactly the same in summer 2005, although it will be transformed when the road is widened to three lanes. The pub is now primarily a restaurant. Although only dual two lanes, this was and is a very well-aligned stretch of road and the journalistic label of “Expressway” rapidly stuck and became applied to other similar roads. In 1958, the government belatedly commissioned a wide-ranging road plan, but the results were so ambitious and expensive that they were rapidly dismissed as unfeasible. Scullion then demanded that the Ministry of Transport come up with plans for some “quick fix” schemes that could be built rapidly, and the results were the A4 Kelthorpe bypass, the A3 Gedney and Bainbridge Bypasses, and the A6 Expressway between Stainton and the Brunswick border at Regina. All of these were authorised in 1960; the first three were completed in 1963 and the latter in 1964. The Bainbridge Bypass has an impressive 500-foot span steel arch bridge which seems over the top for the small number of coasters and pleasure craft that use the town’s port, while the Kelthorpe Bypass is notable for having the first roundabout interchanges in Arransia. The latter also included the first on-line upgrade to Expressway status, as it started effectively at the edge of the Danby built-up area. This attracted a certain amount of criticism, as it involved the removal of the direct through route for cyclists: an alternative route was signposted, but it was longer and less convenient. The 35-mile A6 Expressway, the biggest road project in Arransia so far, was more constrained by existing development and mining subsidence, and today appears a poorly laid out road with some sharp curves and sudden steep gradients. It also has a number of odd asymmetric left in-left out junctions. It remains largely unchanged save for the addition of armco and, running through a grim industrial landscape and plagued by lorries struggling to overtake each other, forms a most unappealing introduction to Arransia for drivers coming up T-89 from Ynysforgan. The existence of the border post makes the lane drop and reduction in standards less immediately obvious. Return to Main Expressway Page
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