Avoid the A1 past Gateshead

[Mark]

Apologies for those not driving in the UK!

Starting this Saturday and for three weeks the A1 just south of Team Valley in Gateshead will be reduced to one lane each way (from the usual two), those who know this stretch will know that it's quite often jammed solid with traffic anyway. I'd expect several miles of tailbacks in both directions.

[leopard]

What has caused the traffic jam? I'd rather avoid narrowing road if it can cause massive traffic jam, but if it happens for high traffic because business activity such as wholesaler or main distributors are centralized there, I'll put more investment. People would normally prefer place with high traffic to less traffic. The cheaper price can compensate me from disadvantage of spending more fuel and times...

[Mark]

What has caused the traffic jam? I'd rather avoid narrowing road if it can cause massive traffic jam, but if it happens for high traffic because business activity such as wholesaler or main distributors are centralized there, I'll put more investment. People would normally prefer place with high traffic to less traffic. The cheaper price can compensate me from disadvantage of spending more fuel and times...

The A1 at this point goes over the east coast mainline railway. They are repairing the bridge there.

[MrJan]

Cheers for the headsup Mark, although I'll probably avoid it by a few hundred miles anyway ;) :p :

[Dave B]

We had a proper Top Gear style race* up there recently, boys' car versus girls' car, starting at Stockton with the boys going straight up the A1 and the girls going via Sunderland for some reason. Meeting point was the car park by the Angel, and we won by about 30 seconds. :D

(*At perfectly legal speeds, needless to say :erm: )

I always avoid the A1 past Gateshead. I prefer civilization.

[Brown, Jon Brow]

If you need to use the A1 then you're living on the wrong side of the Pennines. :p

[BeansBeansBeans]

It's going to be chaos.

[Mark]

We had a proper Top Gear style race* up there recently, boys' car versus girls' car, starting at Stockton with the boys going straight up the A1 and the girls going via Sunderland for some reason. Meeting point was the car park by the Angel, and we won by about 30 seconds. :D

(*At perfectly legal speeds, needless to say :erm: )

via Sunderland?

If you're starting in Stockton then surely A19/A1231 and you're done? Failing that A19/A689?

If you want to get straight to the A1 then you'd have to brave the outer suburbs of Darlington, which is always a crawl.

[Dave B]

via Sunderland?

If you're starting in Stockton then surely A19/A1231 and you're done? Failing that A19/A689?

If you want to get straight to the A1 then you'd have to brave the outer suburbs of Darlington, which is always a crawl.
Hey, I never said it was in any way a sensible idea... :p

[leopard]

The A1 at this point goes over the east coast mainline railway. They are repairing the bridge there.
oh...ok...

Nearly I couldn't slower down to edge myself away when my night trip was entering repaired road because of not enough traffic sign indicating that the road is being repaired. Luckily I could handle the speed.

[emporer_k]

Its going to cause delays on alternative routes as well which will involve my route to and from work in all likeliness. :bigcry:

[Mark]

Its going to cause delays on alternative routes as well which will involve my route to and from work in all likeliness. :bigcry:

It'll be chaos everywhere around it too. So even if you approach Team Valley from a different route, you'll still likely get stuck as I imagine traffic will be queuing back from the roundabout there.