A1(M) motorway


A1 is the designation given to a series of four separate motorway sections in England. Each section is an upgrade to a section of the A1, a major north–south road, which connects London, the capital of England, with Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. The first section, the Doncaster Bypass, opened in 1961 and is one of the oldest sections of motorway in Britain. Construction of a new section of A1 between Leeming and Barton was completed on 29 March 2018, a year later than the anticipated opening in 2017 due to extensive archaeological excavations. Its completion linked the Barton to Washington section with the Darrington to Leeming Bar section, forming the longest A1 section overall and reducing the number of sections from five to four.
There has been a proposal to renumber the section of A1 to M1 between Micklefield and Washington, making this section a northern extension of the M1.

Overview

From London to Sunderland, 123.33 miles of the route are non-motorway while the remaining 145.38 miles are to motorway standards.
The motorway sections are discussed below.

South Mimms to Stotfold

This section opened in stages:

Alconbury to Peterborough

This section which runs through the Cambridgeshire countryside between Alconbury and Peterborough first opened in 1998 and was officially opened by Lord Whitty on 31 October and is the most isolated of the motorway sections as it connects with no other motorway and is designed to a noticeably high standard, eight miles of it being four lanes from Junction 14 at Alconbury to Junction 16 at Norman Cross in each direction whilst the remainder has three lanes in each direction. It is managed by Road Management Services Ltd under a DBFO contract with the Highways Agency.

Junctions

Doncaster By-Pass (Blyth to Skellow)

This fifteen mile section which runs from Skellow in South Yorkshire to Blyth in the far north of Nottinghamshire first opened in 1961 and was one of the very first sections of motorway to be built in Britain; it is entirely two lanes in each direction.

Junctions

Data from driver location signs are used to provide distance and carriageway identifier information.

Skellow to Darrington (proposed)

There are proposals in place to upgrade the Skellow to Darrington section of the A1 to motorway, meaning the entire stretch of A1 from Blyth in Nottinghamshire to Washington in Tyne and Wear will be motorway-standard road.

Darrington to Washington

This section opened in sections:
Data from driver location signs are used to provide distance and carriageway identifier information.