middle England heaven (England in general)

Member Name: superguinness

Product:	England in general
Date:	30/12/00 (94 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: runs straight and true

Disadvantages: had to wave goodbye to a few trees when it was built, no doubt

This is an opinion about a road. Not any old road at the end of your street, but a damn fine new road. It's called the A50 Derby to Stoke link road.

For many years I have struggled using the beast that is known as the M6. But everytime in the past that I have used it, I have also ended up in one huge traffic jam, giving me plenty of time to view the sights and smells of Birmingham. Not a very pleasant way to spend an hour and a half, let me assure you.

Then to my rescue came Connect A50, an especially formed company, who were indeed one of the first companies in the UK to be awarded a contract under the Governments D.B.F.O. (Design, Build, Finance and Operate) initiatives. The contract called for the building of a new motorway link road and it's subsequent maintenance between Stoke on Trent, near the M6 motorway in the West of England, and Derby in the East Midlands, close to the M1 motorway. The inclusion of the maintenance in the original contract is interesting - is it an attempt to minimise future repairs to the road, which in the past, have been required to other motorways as the result of dodgy foundations, I wonder?

Anyway, what a lovely road they have built! It starts near the M1 as a three lane dual carriageway but after a few initial bends, settles into a two lane dual carriageway. It has got a modern surface to it that doesn't make too much tyre noise, it is nice and straight apart from about 5 roundabouts, and at the moment it's fairly free of traffic (compared with the M1 and M6). It has shaved at least half an hour off the time it takes for me to get from the south of England to Cheshire, and relieved much of the stress, in the knowledge that I am unlikely to grind to a halt in a traffic jam.

I thoroughly recommend it. Usually at this point in an opinion I might give the address of a web site, but in this case I refer you (from the south) to junction 23A of the M1 sign posted "Stoke". I t
urn off just before it reaches Stoke and head up through Leek to Macclesfield.

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