A572 road

The A572 is an A road in north-west England. It runs for 18.9 miles (30.4 km) between Swinton in Greater Manchester and St Helens in Merseyside, passing through Worsley, Boothstown, Astley, Leigh, Lowton, and Newton-le-Willows.^[1]

The route crosses the A580 three times and has short sections of primary-route status near Worsley and Lowton.^[1][2][3]

The A572 starts in Swinton at a T-junction with the A6. It heads south-westerly, crosses the A580 at traffic lights and curves westward into Worsley, with a sharp turn at the junction with Hazelhurst Road. The road then runs along the edge of Worsley Golf Course before entering Worsley Village.^[4]

At Worsley the road meets the M60 motorway at junction 13, where the A575 and B5211 also terminate. Roads.org.uk describes the interchange as a dumbbell junction with the A572, A575 and B5211 as other routes.^[5] The road has primary status for the short section between two roundabouts on either side of the motorway, then passes under the M60 and climbs through Worsley Woods towards Boothstown. After passing through Boothstown the road turns off, straight on (TOTSO) at the junction with the A577. The Queens roundabout follows, where the A580 East Lancashire Road crosses the village.^[2]

After crossing the East Lancashire Road, the A572 continues west into the Borough of Wigan. It passes Tyldesley and Astley before reaching Leigh. Streetlist identifies the A572 through this section as Manchester Road and lists connections with the A580, A577 and A5082.^[6]

From Astley the road takes a winding course into Leigh, where it meets the A574 at Butts Bridge and the A578 near the town centre. Streetlist records St Helens Road as part of the A572 through Leigh and lists its links with King Street, the A579 and other local streets.^[7]

The road then heads south to Lowton, crossing the A579 alongside Pennington Flash Country Park.^[8] The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds describes access to Pennington Flash from junction 23 of the M6 by way of the A580 and A572.^[9] The route crosses the A580 for the third time at Lane Head. South of the A580, the A572 runs in concurrency with the A579 for a short distance before continuing towards Newton-le-Willows; MABCU classifies the Newton Road section between the Wigan boundary and A579 as a class A primary road.^[3]

A staggered crossroads with the A573 marks the boundary between the Borough of Wigan and St Helens. The West Coast Main Line passes underneath just before the junction and the M6 motorway crosses overhead just after. In Newton-le-Willows the road meets the A49 outside Newton-le-Willows station.^[1]

A concurrency of about 1 mile (1.6 km) follows along the A49 north through Newton-le-Willows. At a mini-roundabout the designation returns to the A572, which continues westward past Earlestown. The road curves south-west across the Warrington/St Helens boundary and then north-west into St Helens. It runs through Parr and terminates at a junction with the A58.^[1]

The A572 forms part of zone 5 of the Great Britain road numbering scheme. The AARoads Wiki lists its route as Swinton to St Helens and records a 1935 proposal to renumber the eastern end of the route between Swinton and Worsley as part of the A5104, because it ran near the then-new Liverpool–East Lancashire Road; the proposal was not adopted.^[10]

The route's relationship with the A580 dates from the construction of the Liverpool–East Lancashire Road, which opened in 1934 and intersects the A572 at several points. AARoads describes the A580 as having begun construction in 1929 and opened in 1934; its junction list includes the A572.^[11]

53°29′35″N 2°31′15″W / 53.4930°N 2.5209°W / 53.4930; -2.5209