A1 - B1081

Name
Carpenter's Lodge

Where is it?

The southern end of the Stamford Bypass, where the A1 branches away from its historic line and the old road continues into town as the B1081.

It was spotted by Brendan Barnes.

What's wrong with it?

As junctions on the A1 go, this is far from the worst. It has a flyover, which puts it leagues ahead of many of the most dangerous junctions on this long and highly variable route. In fact, compared to something like the notorious old crossroads at Rainham, for example, it's beginning to look quite wonderful.

It doesn't even fare too badly when compared only to other grade-separated junctions on the A1. Okay, so it has several very tight corners on it, some of which (like the southbound on-slip) could, arguably, have been built without quite so many twists and turns. The acceleration lanes to join the A1 are incredibly short — but none of that makes it different to the dozens, perhaps hundreds, of nasty little flyover junctions built during the 1960s to much lower design standards than we have today.

What makes Carpenter's Lodge so deserving of its place here is that it's brand new, opened in 2009 as part of a scheme to remove all the roundabouts between Peterborough and Doncaster. There used to be a roundabout here, you see, and now there's this. I'm not yet convinced that this is an overall improvement.

Why is it wrong?

It's hard to say. Even by the design standards of the early 1960s this would be a bit tight, but then the Stamford Bypass itself was an experimental road designed in the late 1950s, and opened in about 1961, and the junctions on that road (that is to say, the junctions immediately to the north of this one) are all much better designed and have far more generous acceleration lanes and curves.

The new-look Carpenter's Lodge might be fine if it was some tiny local access point — it follows the design rules for a "compact grade-separated junction", which is to say a flyover junction built as cheaply as possible to get local turning traffic off the main road. But this isn't the way to a farm and a tiny village, it's the main road to Stamford from the south — which makes this design seem quite inappropriate.

The junction is fine for the standards to which it was designed, but it was designed to the wrong standards, if you see what I mean.

What would be better?

Here's the thing, you see: it doesn't need to provide access to and from the north. The next junction up the A1 has north-facing sliproads only, and if you wanted to get up the B1081 from the north, you could just as easily exit there. So we can immediately scrap two of the tightest corners on the junction. Next step, smooth out the south-facing sliproads, returning the southbound entry to the line of the original A1 (clearly visible in the aerial photo), taking out the sharp double-bend on the northbound exit, and extending the acceleration and deceleration lanes as far as possible.

And then issue a written apology to the people of Stamford for providing them with such a poor excuse for a junction in the first place.

Routes
A1

Right to reply

'B1040' 3 July 2010

You say that the other junctions on the Stamford bypass are better, but I have found attempting to join the A1 southbound from the A606 (especially at night)to be one of the scarier driving experiences I've had. No chance to build speed on the tight slip road, no view back until the last moment, no acceleration lane to speak of. I try to avoid it.

I haven't tried the new junction yet, but it looks pretty awful as I speed by it.

iwishiwascanadian 10 July 2010

Considering it is the A1 it does seem to be loads better than most junctions on that road, but how could something like that be built in this century. It should be scrapped and redesigned.

Andy H 13 July 2010

Why wasn't it built as a classic "trumpet", with the exit slip off the southbound A1 to the north of the bridge, so it could merge with the northbound exit and avoid that T-junction? Okay, so it's only a B-road - but it is the main route into Stamford from the south, and just to the east is Burghley House. It can get very busy here when the Horse Trials or other events are on, and that T-junction won't help with traffic flow.

Having driven through it, I was struck by the very tight bends on the sliproads, especially joining the A1 southbound. Instead of following the line of the old road into a nice long sliproad to help merge into the 70mph stream, the access to the A1 south does a viscious right-left S-bend before dumping you almost immediately onto the main carriageway, requiring some very rapid acceleration. For a new junction, it's pretty dire!

Keiji 26 July 2010

I can only agree with Andy here. There's enough space for a trumpet, and surely the cost of it couldn't have been a factor, since the southwest side has already been built as a trumpet anyway.

Looking closely at the aerial view you can see there's even a lane for people to turn right out of the northbound exit... back towards the southbound entrance. How many people would need to do this, I wonder?

I'm just stumped on how they managed to think this design up in the first place....

John of Chilwell 5 August 2010

Another thing about this junction is poor signposting.

Approaching on the A1 from the south, the Stamford sign appears to send you off at the previous exit (over ¼ mile before the B1081). So we had a detour via Easton on the Hill - at night, in the snow. What fun!

Andy Rathe 20 August 2010

If I lived in Stamford I'd hate to use this junction to access all points South! It's the junction where I most frequently see cars trapped at the end of the southbound on-slip, having failed to find a gap in which to merge.

As for who would use the junction to turn round to head South, residents of Wittering village and RAF Wittering would, as both can only directly access the northbound A1. Indeed, the number of people U-turning was one of the reason southbound traffic queued at the old roundabout.

One word about the north-facing slips too, it's worth remembering that the whole of Stamford is subject to a 7.5 ton weight limit for HGVs. I don't know what heavy industry there is on the south side of the town, but it's possible this was part of the reason for the current junction layout.

sydneynick 22 August 2010

It's interesting that the "alternative aerial view" of this junction still shows the roundabout!

Chris M 29 August 2010

As a partial solution, it doesn't look like reinstating the historic line of the road for the southbound on slip would require much more than just some relatively minor vegetation clearance, a good resurfacing, some line painting and possibly a new traffic merging from the left sign (diagram 508.1) for the main road.

Denise 27 May 2011

Well I live in Stamford and I hate this junction, and have done ever since they built it. Why didn't they combine the northbound exits to make them less confusing? They would have been able to allow more space for the deceleration lane if they had. As it is, you can't afford to wait to brake until you reach the lane, or you won't make it round that steep left-hand bend.
But the slip road onto the A1 southbound is even worse and the acceleration lane is practically non-existent.

Pete 19 August 2018

You try using this junction from the south, at night, in the rain. The slip road is so badly lined and marked, the way your lights catch the kerb, means you badly misjudge the actual physical lane and on the first occasion I used it in those conditiions, I did actually make contact with the kerb.

F.Pitt 22 August 2018

All five junctions look bad to me. The B1081 at the Northern and Southern ends and the ones with the 606,6121 and Stamford road all seem dangerous. Out of interest, looking at the Northernmost of these junctions, the B1081 which is northbound only- if you look at an aerial view of where that road goes under the A1, it seems as if they had other plans for the bridge as is has an extra part on each side that is not used.

Prash 11 October 2019

I used this junction from Stamford centre going north towards Grantham. This is such a dodgy road. First there is a sharp bend with no lights so this was at night and hardly a acceleration lane following a blind bend. I feel they need to make the acceleration lane at least half a mile long like they do on the motorway slip roads as one may have to stop and then find a gap to go from 0 to 70 mph.

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