A500 road (Great Britain)

A500
Map of the route of the A500
The northbound junction between the A500 and A50
Route information
History:	Constructed began 1962 and finished 2006
Major junctions
From:	Nantwich
	M6 motorway A34 road A50 road A51 road A52 road A53 road A519 road A527 road A531 road A5020 road A5271 road
To:	Clayton
Location
Primary destinations:	Stoke-on-Trent, Crewe
Road network
Roads in the United Kingdom Motorways A and B road zones

The A500 is a major primary A road in Staffordshire and Cheshire, England. It is dual carriageway for most of its length and connects Nantwich, junctions 16 and 15 of the M6 motorway with the city of Stoke-on-Trent. It is known locally as the D-Road (D is also the Roman numeral representing the number 500). In 2004 the road was stated as carrying 60,000 vehicles a day through Stoke.

It was built to provide links between Stoke-on-Trent and the M6, before being extended to Nantwich. Construction has taken place over several stages, beginning in 1962, with the final section of the original route being completed similar to the original plans in 2006. As a trunk road it is maintained by the Highways Agency.

By the 1960s, traffic congestion was a major problem in Stoke-on-Trent, and journeys across the area sometimes took hours. There was no connection from the newly constructed M6 to the city. Businesses in the area wanted an easier route to get their goods out of the area.

The A500 was initially built from the M6 at junction 16 to the A34 road at Talke as part of the motorway construction, opening in 1962. At the southern end, a dual carriageway was constructed from junction 15 of the M6 to the A34 near Trentham, given the number A5006, and opened at the same time. The northern section of the road was then subsequently extended from Talke to the A53 road. The final section from the A34 in the south to the A53 junction was built between 1974 and 1977. The two middle junctions were to be grade separated, but due to financial constraints they were built as roundabouts. Construction involved the destruction of streets and businesses within Stoke's town centre, as well as the excavation of a mass grave of the victims of a 17th-century cholera epidemic. This final section was named Queensway, and on its completion the whole route became the A500.