A66 road (England)

A66
Route information
Length:	115 mi (185 km)
Major junctions
From:	Workington
	A595 road A596 road A5271 road A591 road A592 road M6 motorway A6 road A686 road A685 road A67 road A6108 road A1(M) motorway A1(M) motorway (J53) A167 road A1150 road A135 road A1130 road A19 road A1032 road A178 road A172 road A171 road A1085 road A1053 road
To:	Grangetown
Location
Primary destinations:	Keswick, Penrith, Brough, Scotch Corner, Darlington, , Middlesbrough
Road network
Roads in the United Kingdom Motorways A and B road zones

A66(M)
Route information
Length:	2.0 mi (3.2 km)
Existed:	1965 – present
Major junctions
From:	Cleasby
	A1(M) motorway
To:	Stapleton
Road network
Roads in the United Kingdom Motorways A and B road zones

The A66 is a major road in Northern England, which in part follows the course of the Roman road from Scotch Corner to Penrith. It runs from east of Middlesbrough in the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire to Workington in Cumbria. It is anomalously numbered since west of Penrith it trespasses into numbering zone 5; this is because it originally terminated at the A6 in Penrith but was extended further west in order to create one continuous east–west route. Most of what is now the A66 west of Penrith was originally A594 – only a small stub of this road numbering remains, from Maryport to Cockermouth.

From its eastern terminus between Redcar and Middlesbrough it runs past and Darlington mainly as two-lane dual-carriageway and single carriageway past Darlington, becoming motorway standard as the A66(M) shortly before meeting junction 57 of the A1(M). It follows the A1(M) south to Scotch Corner, from where it continues west across the Pennines, past Brough, Appleby, Kirkby Thore, Temple Sowerby and Penrith until it reaches Junction 40 of the M6 motorway at Skirsgill Interchange, where traffic going towards Western Scotland turns onto the northbound M6. The A66 continues past Blencathra to Keswick and Cockermouth and on through the northern reaches of the Lake District before arriving at the coastal town of Workington. There is a short stretch of dual carriageway along the northern part of Bassenthwaite Lake between Keswick and Cockermouth. Whilst the eastbound section follows the straight line of the disused Cockermouth, Keswick and Penrith Railway, the westbound section has numerous bends with climbs and dips. The westbound section was closed due to flood damage in December 2015 and when it re-opened in May 2016 had been permanently reduced to a single lane. This section has a 50 miles per hour (80 km/h) limit monitored by average speed cameras.

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Wikipedia