A56 - A682
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Ordnance Survey map - Alternative aerial view
Where is it?
The main dual carriageway route between the M65 (and thus the heavily populated Calder valley) and Greater Manchester. A few miles to the south, the A56 becomes the M66. Here, a dual carriageway spur to Rawtenstall leaves the route.
It was spotted by Bryn Buck.
What's wrong with it?
It is, basically, the wrong way round. With just half a mile's warning, the entire A56 and all its traffic must turn off to the left, while the priority route straight ahead dawdles into Rawtenstall just a couple of miles further along. Coming south, the already busy A56 must give way to the A682. This is no way for a high standard trunk route to behave.
Why is it wrong?
The Edenfield bypass, built in the late 60's, took the A56 onto a new dual carriageway alignment and this new road terminated on the existing A56 in Rawtenstall. The Haslingden bypass was then built, connecting to the A56 at this fork junction, taking the number A622. All was well. But when the M65 was built, a new bit of road was built connecting the end of the Haslingden bypass to the motorway, and the A56 assumed that route - turning off to the left here as it did so.
What would be better?
This could actually be a very cheap fix - rebuilding the junction would be costly and difficult given the local geography, but no such drastic solution is needed. For a start better signage would help avoid the frantic last-second lane changes by telling motorists what's about to happen. Then the road could be re-marked to make the left-hand lane dedicated to the A56, and the right hand lane split between A56 and A682. Southbound, the A682 could be dropped to one lane so that only one lane of the incoming A56 needs to merge.
Right to Reply
Email me with your comments.
Andrew Teale writes:
You suggest that the A682 could be reduced to one lane through the junction. In fact this has already happened, with both the A56 and A682 dropping to one lane before the junction, and the slip road from the roundabout being a temporary lane gain on the A56.
I fully agree with your comments about the poor signage of this junction, which also apply to the lane-drop on the southbound A56.
Ian Bailey adds:
I agree with comments about the northbound layout - a left hand bend, lots of trees and poor signs mean that unless you know the fork is there you end up in Rawtenstall.
But then you wrote "Southbound, the A682 could be dropped to one lane so that only one lane of the incoming A56 needs to merge."
That is a description of the existing layout!!!! The southbound A56 drops to 1 lane, with the on-slip from the A680 roundabout forming lane 1 to its left. As you run down the hill towards the mainline, the right-hand (A56) lane forms lane 1 - as the A682 is down to a single lane and forms lane 2. The lane that joined from the A680 roundabout is separated from this by hatchings, before mering into lane 1.
So southbound, it all works perfectly fine. Reducing the A56 to a single lane allows it to slew across the alignment from one side to another, easing this tight bend. A680 traffic gets its own lane and own merge, and dropping the A682 mainline to a single lane delays no-one as its always empty.
Okay okay, I got it wrong! I'm sorry! - Ed
Geoff Bolton places the blame elsewhere:
The frantic lane changes you refer to when wanting to take the left hand lane onto the A56 are executed by drivers who do know the junction is there but seem they have to queue jump just to get ahead of that extra vehicle or two!
Zohre Brown doesn't like trying to go the other way:
What is not discussed is the traffic southbound from the M65 on the A680 bypass wanting to travel towards Rawtenstall, Bacup and beyond has to come off the dual carriageway, and travel down a narrow residential road (A681 Haslingden Road) to the big Rawtenstall roundbout which gets so busy in rush hour with buses and parked cars. Why couldn't they have added a filter lane from the bypass direct onto the A682 approach to Rawtenstall? In fact, even better, they should have made it connect direct to the Rawtenstall Bocholt Way bypass, perhaps with an underpass out coming out on the Burnley Road.
David Gibson has a technological problem:
To make matters with this interchange worse, drivers using Sat-Nav get sent the wrong direction. Mapping data (supplied by TeleAtlas) on Navman devices has not captured all the necessary layout information for routing through this unusual junction. When travelling North on the A56 and intending to continue on the A56, as you are already aware, one has to turn-off for the A56 to remain on the A56.
At this point during a Sat-Nav guided journey it is traditional for a well spoken lady (or gentleman) to prompt you to "Exit Left" - not on this trip. The weird road layout has not been fully translated and the Sat-Nav forgets to tell you to "Exit Left" for the A56.
Meanwhile, poor unsuspecting driver has sailed straight on and is now halfway to Rawtenstall. Old Sat-Nav suddenly wakes up and realises that it is now on the A682. You will then be sent on an intricate guided tour of Rawtenstall and Haslingden to get you back-on-track (TM). I have experienced this error on Navman devices (ICN520 & N40i) but it may affect other manufacturers too (like TomTom) if the fault is in the Map Data they are supplied with.
