Portal:Roads/Selected article

Selected article 1

Portal:Roads/Selected article/1

The Hume Highway / Hume Freeway is one of Australia's most important and notable interstate highways which runs for 880 km inland between Sydney and Melbourne. It is part of the Auslink National Network and is a vital link for road freight to transport goods to and from the two cities as well as serving Albury, Wodonga and Canberra.

The main alternative route is the Princes Highway which goes via the coast rather than inland.

Selected article 2

Portal:Roads/Selected article/2

A freeway is a type of road designed for safer high-speed operation of motor vehicles through the elimination of at-grade intersections. This is accomplished by preventing access to and from adjacent properties and eliminating all cross traffic through the use of grade separations and interchanges; railroad crossings are also removed. Such highways are usually divided with at least two lanes in each direction. Because traffic never crosses at-grade, there are generally no traffic lights or stop signs. Some countries have roads that function as freeways but use different names. These include autobahn, autovía, autoroute, autopista, autostrada, autosnelweg, motorway (in the UK and Ireland) and expressway (in India and Asia).

Selected article 3

Portal:Roads/Selected article/3

Great Eastern Highway, Western Australia is a major road linking Perth with Kalgoorlie. It is a key route for vehicles accessing eastern wheatbelt and the eastern goldfields. It also forms the westernmost 595 kilometres (370 mi) of the main road transportation link between Perth and the east coast of Australia.

The road is mostly a federally funded national highway due to its national strategic importance. It is signed as National Highway 94 except for a 9 km stretch between the Great Eastern Highway Bypass and Roe Highway, and the 40 km section between Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie. It is also signed as Highway 1 between The Causeway and Morrison Road, and State Route 51 between Johnson Street, Guildford, and Roe Highway.

Selected article 4

Portal:Roads/Selected article/4

The London congestion charge is a fee for some motorists travelling within those parts of London designated as the Congestion Charge Zone (CCZ). The main objectives of this charge are to reduce congestion, and to raise funds for investment in London's transport system. The zone came into operation in parts of Central London on 17 February 2003 and it was extended into parts of west London on 19 February 2007. Although not the first scheme of its kind in the United Kingdom, it was the largest when it was introduced, and it remains one of the largest in the world. Worldwide, several cities have referenced the London scheme when considering their own possible schemes. A payment of £8 is required for each day a chargeable vehicle enters or travels within the zone between 7am and 6pm; a fine of between £60 and £180 is imposed for non-payment.

The organisation responsible for the charge is Transport for London (TfL); Capita Group operates the scheme under contract. The system is run on a generally automatic basis using CCTV and Automatic Number Plate Recognition.

Selected article 5

Portal:Roads/Selected article/5

The Trans-Canada Highway is a federal-provincial highway system that joins all ten provinces of Canada. It is, after the Trans-Siberian Highway and Australia's Highway 1, the world's longest national highway, with the main route spanning 7,821 km. The system was approved by the Trans-Canada Highway Act of 1948, construction commenced in 1950, officially opened in 1962, and was completed in 1971. The highway system is recognizable by its distinctive white-on-green maple leaf route markers.

Throughout much of Canada, there are at least two routes designated as part of the Trans-Canada Highway. For example, in the western provinces, both the main Trans-Canada route and the Yellowhead Highway are part of the Trans-Canada system.

Selected article 6

Portal:Roads/Selected article/6

Motorway is a term for both a type of road and a classification or designation. Motorways are high capacity roads designed to carry fast motor traffic safely. In the United Kingdom they are predominantly dual-carriageway roads, with a minimum of two lanes in each direction (typically three, and up to six on the Western section of the M25), and all have grade-separated access, comparable with North American freeways as a road type, and interstates as a classification.

In English-speaking countries the term is used in the United Kingdom (a motorway is also called a traffordd (plural: traffyrdd) in Welsh), parts of Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, some other Commonwealth nations, and Ireland (a motorway is also called a mótarbhealach (plural: mótarbhealaí) in Irish). In Ireland, a road built to motorway standard, but without the designation (and the regulations and traffic restrictions resulting from that designation), is known as a High-quality dual carriageway.

Selected article 7

Portal:Roads/Selected article/7

The Central Motorway Junction or CMJ, best known as Spaghetti Junction, is the intersection of New Zealand State Highways 1 and 16 south of the city centre of Auckland City, Auckland, New Zealand. It is multilevel structure (at least three traffic lanes crossing above each other in several locations) which has been described as a "fiendishly complicated, multi-layered puzzle of concrete, steel and asphalt" which carries around 200,000 vehicles a day.

The central motorway junction forms the intersection between the three major motorways of Auckland (Auckland Northern Motorway (1), Auckland Southern Motorway (1), and Northwest Motorway (16)), and provides access from these routes to the city centre. It is principally located in a series of gullies to the south and east of the CBD and in cuttings to the west.

Selected article 8

Portal:Roads/Selected article/8

The A1 in London is an A road in North London. It runs from the London Wall to Bignell's Corner, where it crosses the M25 and becomes the A1(M) motorway, continuing to Edinburgh. (For the road outside London, see the main A1 road article.) The London section passes through 4 London Boroughs: the City of London, Islington, Haringey and Barnet. Whilst the route of the A1 outside London closely follows the historic route of the Great North Road, the London section for the most part does not.

The current route of the London section of the A1 road was (for the most part) designated as such in 1927. It comprises a number of historic streets in central London and the former suburbs of Islington, Holloway and Highgate and long stretches of purpose-built new roads in the outer London borough of Barnet, built to divert traffic away from the congested suburbs of Finchley and High Barnet.

Selected article 9

Portal:Roads/Selected article/9

The A500 is a major primary A road in Staffordshire and Cheshire, England. It is dual carriageway for most of its length and connects Nantwich, junctions 16 and 15 of the M6 motorway with the city of Stoke-on-Trent. Because of its shape between the motorway junctions, it is known locally as the D-Road (D is also the Roman numeral representing the number 500). In 2004 the road was stated as carrying 60,000 vehicles a day through Stoke.

It was built to provide links between Stoke-on-Trent and the M6, before being extended to Nantwich. Construction has taken place over several stages, beginning in 1962, with the final section of the original route being completed similar to the original plans in 2006. As a trunk road it is maintained by the Highways Agency.

Selected article 10

Portal:Roads/Selected article/10

The A4232, which is known either as the Peripheral Distributor Road (PDR) (Welsh: Ffordd Ddosbarthu Ymylol) or the Cardiff Link Road (Welsh: Ffordd Gyswllt Caerdydd), is a distributor road in Cardiff, the capital of Wales.

The first section of the PDR to be completed was the Southern Way Link Road between Newport Road (A4161 road) and the Eastern Avenue (A48 road) in 1978.rem When fully completed, the road will form part of the Cardiff ring-road system. The PDR runs west, south and east of Cardiff, with the M4 between junction 30 and junction 33 completing the northern section. The PDR is dual carriageway for its entire length except for the East Moors Viaduct, which is a single carriageway.

Selected article 11

Portal:Roads/Selected article/11

]

The Appian Way (Latin and Italian: Via Appia) was one of the earliest and strategically most important Roman roads of the ancient republic. It connected Rome to Brindisi, Apulia, in southeast Italy. Its importance is indicated by its common name, recorded by Statius:

Appia teritur regina longarum viarum

"the Appian way is commonly said to be the queen of the long roads"

The road is named after Appius Claudius Caecus, the Roman censor who began and completed the first section as a military road to the south in 312 BC during the Samnite Wars.

Selected article 12

Portal:Roads/Selected article/12

Highway 2 is a provincial highway in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It is the longest Saskatchewan Highway, at 809 km (503 mi). The highway is partially divided and undivided. However, only about 18 kilometres (11 mi) near Moose Jaw, 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) near Chamberlain, and 21 kilometres (13 mi) near Prince Albert are divided highway. Highway 2 is a major north-south route, beginning at the Canadian-American border at the Port of West Poplar River, and Opheim, Montana customs checkpoints. Montana Highway 24 continues south. The town of La Ronge delimits the northern terminus with Highway 102 continuing north. It passes through the major cities of Moose Jaw in the south and Prince Albert in the north. Highway 2 overlaps Highway 11 between the towns of Chamberlain and Findlater. This 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) section of road is a wrong-way concurrency. The highway ends at La Ronge, where it becomes Highway 102.

Selected article 13

Portal:Roads/Selected article/13

The King's Highway 401 (also known as the Macdonald-Cartier Freeway) is a highway that extends across Southern Ontario, Canada. It is the longest 400-Series Highway in Ontario, and one of the widest and busiest highways in the world. In fact, the highway has the distinction of being North America's busiest freeway. Together with Quebec Autoroute 20, it is the road transportation backbone of the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor, along which over half of Canada's population resides. Colloquially, the road is known simply as the 401, spoken as "four-oh-one."

On August 24, 2007, the stretch of highway between Toronto (from Highway 404/Don Valley Parkway) and Trenton (from Glen Miller Road) was given the additional name Highway of Heroes, in honour of Canadian Forces personnel killed during the War in Afghanistan. Along the route are several heritage sites, an international bird watching area, saline lakes, as well as regional and provincial parks. Museums and historical markers commemorate the region's history along the highway.

Selected article 14

Portal:Roads/Selected article/14 The Millau Viaduct (French: le Viaduc de Millau) is a large cable-stayed road-bridge that spans the valley of the River Tarn near Millau in southern France. Designed by the structural engineer Michel Virlogeux and British architect Norman Foster, it is the tallest vehicular bridge in the world, with one mast's summit at 343 metres (1,125 ft) — slightly taller than the Eiffel Tower and only 38 m (125 ft) shorter than the Empire State Building. The viaduct is part of the A75-A71 autoroute axis from Paris to Béziers. It was formally dedicated on 14 December 2004, inaugurated the day after and opened to traffic two days later. The bridge won the 2006 IABSE Outstanding Structure Award.

The bridge’s construction broke three world records:

• The highest pylons in the world: pylons P2 and P3, 244.96 metres (803 ft 8 in) and 221.05 metres (725 ft 3 in) in height respectively.
• The highest mast in the world: the mast atop pylon P2 peaks at 343 metres (1,125 ft).
• The highest road bridge deck in the world, 270 m (890 ft) above the Tarn River at its highest point.

Selected article 15

Portal:Roads/Selected article/15

The M54 is a 23-mile (37 km) east-west motorway in the English counties of Shropshire and Staffordshire. It is also referred to as the Telford Motorway, after the road's primary westbound destination, the new town of Telford. The motorway cost £65 million to construct, and is two-lane dual carriageway for the majority of its length, with sections of three-lane.

The M54 spur connects the M6 motorway near Essington, Staffordshire with the A5 trunk road at Wellington, Shropshire. The motorway forms part of the strategic route to North Wales, roughly following the path of the Roman Watling Street and the A5 north-westwards, towards the port of Holyhead. It is the only motorway in Shropshire, and forms a vital part of the county's road network.

Selected article 16

Portal:Roads/Selected article/16

The M62 motorway is a west–east trans-Pennine motorway in northern England, connecting the cities of Liverpool and Hull via Manchester and Leeds. The road also forms part of the unsigned Euroroutes E20 (Shannon to Saint Petersburg) and E22 (Holyhead to Ishim). The road is 107 miles (172 km) long; however, for seven miles (11 km), it shares its route with the M60 motorway around Manchester.

The motorway, which was first proposed in the 1930s, and originally conceived as two separate routes, was built in stages between 1971 and 1976, with construction beginning at Pole Moor and finishing in Tarbock. The motorway also absorbed the northern end of the Stretford-Eccles bypass, which was built between 1957 and 1960. Adjusted for inflation to 2007, the motorway cost approximately £765 million to build. The motorway is relatively busy, with an average daily traffic flow of 100,000 cars in Yorkshire, and has several areas prone to gridlock, in particular, between Leeds and Huddersfield in West Yorkshire.

Selected article 17

Portal:Roads/Selected article/17

The Incense Route or the Incense Road was a series of major ancient trading routes stretching across Egypt to India through Arabia. The incense trade flourished from South Arabia to the Mediterranean between roughly the 3rd century BCE to the 2nd century CE. The Incense Route served as a channel for trading of goods such as Arabian frankincense and myrrh; Indian spices, ebony, silk and fine textiles; and East African rare woods, feathers, animal skins and gold.

Selected article 18

Portal:Roads/Selected article/18

The N11 road is a national primary road in Ireland, running for 140 km (87 miles) along the east side of Ireland from Dublin to Wexford. It passes close to Bray, Greystones, Wicklow, Arklow and Gorey and also passes through Enniscorthy, amongst others. Beyond Wexford, the route continues to Rosslare as the N25. The road forms part of European route E01. As of 2006 the N11 is of dual carriageway or motorway standard from Dublin as far as Rathnew in County Wicklow, with a further section of dual carriageway bypassing Arklow and Gorey.

The road is a very busy commuter route, as it is the only dual carriageway passing through the south eastern suburbs of Dublin, as well as close to the many commuter towns along the east coast as far south as Gorey. Summer Friday and Sunday evenings also see very heavy traffic as Dubliners decamp to, and return from, their many holiday home locations along the Co. Wicklow and Co. Wexford coastlines.

Selected article 19

Portal:Roads/Selected article/19

There have been routes and trackways in Ireland connecting settlements and facilitating trade since ancient times and the country now has an extensive network of public roads connecting all parts of the country.

The first routes in Ireland were prehistoric trackways, some of which were later developed into roads suited for wheeled vehicles. Many of Ireland's minor roads "may well have had their origin in pre-existing paths and trackways aligned in direct response to the physical environment". Traces of these "evolved roads" which developed over very long periods, frequently from tracks of the prehistoric period, are still evident. Such roads usually followed the tops of ridges and crossed rivers and streams at fording points.

Selected article 20

Portal:Roads/Selected article/20

Autobahn is the German word for a major high-speed road restricted to motor vehicles capable of driving at least 60 km/h (37 mph) and having full control of access, similar to a motorway or freeway in English-speaking countries.

In most countries, it usually refers to the German autobahn specifically. The recommended speed of the German autobahn is 130 km/h (81 mph), but there is no general speed limit. Austrian and Swiss autobahns have general speed limits of 130 km/h (81 mph) and 120 km/h (75 mph), respectively. In German, the word is pronounced as described above, and its plural is Autobahnen; in English, however, the segment "auto" is typically pronounced as in other English words such as "automobile". The official name of the autobahn in Germany is Bundesautobahn (BAB) (Federal Freeway). Autobahns are built and maintained by the federal government (as are the federal highways), thus the name "Federal Freeway". The first were built in the 1920s, and in the 1930s the official name was "Reichsautobahn" (Freeways of the Reich).

Selected article 21

Portal:Roads/Selected article/21

The A1 motorway (Croatian: Autocesta A1) is the longest motorway in Croatia spanning 454.5 kilometers (282.4 mi). As it connects Zagreb, the nation's capital, to Split, the second largest city in the country and the largest city in Dalmatia, the motorway represents a major north–south transportation corridor in Croatia and a significant part of the Adriatic–Ionian motorway. Apart from Zagreb and Split, the A1 motorway runs near a number of major Croatian cities, provides either access to several national parks or nature parks and world heritage sites and numerous resorts, especially along the Adriatic Coast. The motorway is currently being extended south of Split to the port of Ploče and the city of Dubrovnik. National significance of the motorway is reflected through its positive economic impact on the cities and towns it connects as well as its importance to tourism in Croatia, however its genuine importance as a transit route shall be achieved upon completion of the Adriatic–Ionian motorway along the sections currently spanned just by the Adriatic Highway and two-lane roads in Slovenia and Albania connecting to the route.

Selected article 22

Portal:Roads/Selected article/22

The A55, also known as the North Wales Expressway (Welsh: Gwibffordd Gogledd Cymru) and the Chester to Bangor Trunk Road,[1] is a major road in Britain. Its entire length is a dual carriageway primary route, with the exception of the point where it crosses the Britannia Bridge over the Menai Strait and several short sections where there are gaps in between the two carriageways. All junctions are grade separated except for two roundabouts — one east of Penmaenmawr and one in Llanfairfechan. The road originally ran from Chester to Bangor but was extended parallel to the A5 across Anglesey to just outside Holyhead Docks in 2001. The road improvements have been part funded with European money, under the Trans-European Networks programme, as the route is designated part of Euroroute E22 (Holyhead - Leeds - Amsterdam - Hamburg - Malmö - Riga - Moscow - Perm - Ekaterinburg - Ishim). The A55 is sometimes called a motorway, because of its appearance, although it is not officially a motorway.

Selected article 23

Selected article 24

Selected article 25

Usage

The layout design for these subpages is at Portal:Roads/Selected article/Layout.

1. Add a new selected article to the next available subpage.
2. Update "max=" to new total for its {{Random portal component}} on the main page.
3. Please also feel free to add to the following portals as well: U.S. Roads - London transport and Transport

Feel free to directly add featured, A or GA class Roads content articles to the above list which are now rotated automatically through the portal.