Trunk road
From Free net encyclopedia
Template:Globalize A trunk road, trunk highway, or strategic road is a major road—usually connecting one or more cities, ports, airports, etc.—which is the recommended route for long-distance and freight traffic. Many trunk roads have segregated lanes, or are motorway standard.
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United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, Trunk Roads were first defined for Great Britain in the Trunk Roads Act 1936. Thirty major roads were classed as Trunk Roads and the Minister of Transport took direct control of them and the bridges across them. This development did not extend to Northern Ireland, which has always had a separate system of highway and road traffic law.
At that time, 4,500 miles of British road were classified as Trunk Roads. Additional roads have been 'trunked', notably in the Trunk Roads Act 1946. Others, like virtually all British motorways, have entered the system as a result of new construction. As of 2004, England has 10,458 km of Trunk Roads.
Trunk roads in England are managed by the Highways Agency. Scotland and Wales have had responsibility for their own trunk roads since 1955 and 1965 respectively.
Curiosities and facts about Trunk Roads
Most interurban trunk roads are "primary routes", the category of recommended roads for long distance and freight transport, but not all primary routes are trunk roads, the difference being that trunk roads are maintained by central government rather than the local councils. Primary routes are identified by their direction signs, which feature white text on a green background with route numbers in yellow. Trunk roads, like other 'A' roads, can either be single- or dual-carriageway.
Trunk roads are often listed on maps with a "T" in brackets after their normal numbers so as to distinguish them from non-trunk parts of the same road. A trunk road which has been partially upgraded to motorway standard can sometimes retain its original "A" number but with an "M" in brackets to denote that motorway regulations apply on it. This is common on Primary Routes which are slowly being converted to motorway standard, but have not yet been completed. Good examples of this are the A1(M) in England, and the A74(M) in Scotland.
It is possible for roads to become 'de-trunked' to County 'A' Roads, for example when superseded by a motorway following a similar route. When a road is 'detrunked' it is often not visible to the normal user when it retains its numbers. In some places however, the road number will change and will usually be signposted in the style "B000, was A00", although repeated changes can lead to such nonsense as "A5, was A5" (between St Albans and Redbourn). In addition, the UK government de-trunked much of the trunk road network in the last 6 years, to concentrate on a selection of core trunk routes, mostly dual carriageways and motorways.
Ireland
In Ireland some roads were classified under an old British system as Trunk routes, and had route numbers prefixed by "T". Another old designation was Link, or "L", road. Although a number of old road signs using these designations may still be encountered, Ireland has long since adopted a newer classification scheme of National Primary and Secondary Routes ("N" roads), Regional roads ("R" roads), and local roads (administratively referred to by "L"-prefixed numbers, though these numbers are not shown on signs).
United States
Though the term trunk road sees little use in American English, the U.S. highway and Interstate highway systems can be considered trunk highways of the United States, although actual construction and maintenance is delegated to individual U.S. states (funding is apportioned as well). Each state maintains its own trunk highway system, incorporating state, U.S., and Interstate routes.
China
China has begun development of the National Trunk Highway System (NTHS), which will create many east-west and north-south highways, plus seven radials heading out of the capital, Beijing.