Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
Switch Island
Switch Island is a road junction near Aintree in Merseyside, United Kingdom. The juction is at the western terminus of both the M57 and M58 motorways, which converge on the A59 trunk road, the north-south route from Liverpool. The junction is also the terminus of the A5036 , a road which serves the Port of Liverpool.
Original plans for the two motorways involved them merging at this junction and continuing west, while the A59 continued uninterupted under (or over) the roundabout, with slip roads to and from the junction. These plans were never completed and instead all four roads converge at the same level on the single roundabout. The matter is made more complicated as the roundabout is bisected by the dual carriageway on the same level. To complicate matters the through route of the dual carriageway is not the A59 south to the A59 north, but from the A5036 south to the A59 north. Effectively, this results in two motorways and the port road feeding onto the A59 through route at an incomplete roundabout.
The junction carries 80,000 vehicles a day, and improvements are a priority for England's Highways Agency.
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