A167 - A184

Name
Eastgate Roundabout

Where is it?

Gateshead. No, really — this junction really is in the heart of Gateshead. Any journey to Gateshead, or through it, will involve this sorry tangle in some way.

It links the A167 — the main north-south road across Gateshead and Newcastle, which is grade-separated to the south and a motorway to the north, and also the road over the Tyne Bridge — to the A184, the east-west road across Gateshead, heading away towards the Metro Centre and Sunderland respectively.

What's wrong with it?

Is that a serious question? I mean, have you looked at it yet? It's like an explosion in a traffic light factory. It would be tempting to photograph it at night, to get one of those nice time-lapse pictures with all the streaky headlights and tail lights as the cars swirl around each other and all the signals blink red-amber-green, but to take that sort of picture you need all the cars to move to make the streaky light trails, and at this junction nothing moves very often.

It includes the rather interesting situation where traffic using the 270-degree loop passes through the same set of traffic lights twice.

The Mayor of Gateshead himself is often to be seen waiting at the side of the southbound A167 just past this junction. He awards medals to motorists who successfully find their way there from the eastbound A184.

Why is it wrong?

Not because something happened, but because nothing happened. Newcastle and Gateshead had big plans in the 1960s — what is now the A167 was supposed to be the A1, running right through the heart of the metropolis as a motorway. To the north, Newcastle built the Central Motorway East, now A167(M), to carry it. To the south, Gateshead built the elevated Gateshead Highway, now A167, to do the job. The Tyne Bridge provided a spectacular crossing of the river for the new road.

By the mid 1970s, the plans had effectively died off, leaving this junction (then a simple roundabout) as the only stopping point on the through route.

Since then, Gateshead Council have scratched their heads and rubbed their chins thoughtfully, and came up with this knotted web of confusion and misery to try to keep things moving. It's not a bad effort, all things considered; as a signalised junction it's actually rather clever. But it is evidently not enough and really something much more drastic is needed if we are ever to stop Tyneside commuters chewing holes in their steering wheels in frustration.

What would be better?

Those sixties motorway plans are never coming back and the unfinished stub-ends of flyover and sliproad on the Gateshead Highway are never going to be used to fix this mess. I've come to terms with that now and I am at peace with it. I am calmness and zen. I am raking neat stripes in a gravel-strewn garden. Ahhhh.

One reasonable idea is an east-west flyover parallel to the railway, carrying the A184 over the A167. A two-way bridge with a lane each way would be just enough, and could be squeezed in, leaving some sharp left turns on the west side to get in and out of the A184 at ground level, but crucially getting rid of that horrible crossroads at the north side of the junction. You could smooth out all sorts of things and free up some green-light time for the A167 with that change, and it's parallel to the railway so it's not too objectionable to build.

That's got my heart rate up again, so if you'll excuse me I'm off to fiddle with my meditation beads.

Routes
Region

Right to reply

Richard 3 November 2009

Actually, it's not quite so bad as it looks. It used to be a lot worse. The 270 loop solves two problems in one go: there used to be terrific tailbacks of traffic across the Tyne Bridge wanting to turn right onto the A184, and there was the potential of further gridlock once the Sage centre opened to the north east, which the loop also provides access to.

East-west and east-south traffic is directed round the south of Gateshead town centre (zoom out one on the map and it's the orange A184).

The truly insane bit is a little bit to the south east - A184(w) to A167(n). Nice outside lane merge for that sliproad. Good job both lanes often get clogged, really...

Bosun Higgs 3 April 2015

You can avoid the 270-degree loop, coming soutbound over the Tyne Bridge and wanting to turn right onto the A184 westbound. Stay in the right-hand lane and use that U-shaped loop so that you are briefly travelling north on the A167. Then use the slip-road on the left to join the A184 and bingo! - you're at the next set of lights.

Jamtex 31 October 2015

Heaven help you if you are new to the area and want to get on one of the side roads off the A184/A167 or indeed off. With lots of one way roads, bus lanes and loading only roads it can be an utter nightmare trying to get somewhere around central Gateshead. I spent ages from Gateshead High Street trying to get on the A167 to get to the Swing bridge, ended up doing a loop on the A184...

Jaki 24 February 2016

We got on the wrong side of this junction (in more ways than one) both trying to get into The Sage and trying to get out of it. We're not from the area and weren't familiar with the road layout. To make matters worse, the signage for The Sage was really poor. Leaving the venue, we couldn't work out how to get onto the Tyne Bridge at all and ended up on the wrong road. You'd think the venue would do more to help with better signage, given that this area is a known 'bad junction' - not very sage on their part.

Niiiice1 24 January 2017

Bosun Higgs comment about avoiding the 270 loop was correct, but is not any more. Travelling north, there is now a No Left Turn enforced so that you cannot access the westbound A184 (Askew Road); so for drivers crossing the Tyne Bridge southbound, the 270 degree loop is now the only way to do it (without a detour through the back of central Gateshead). The reason for this is because Newcastle and Gateshead are becoming more "cycle-friendly" and removing the left turn there allows cyclists to traverse this junction heading northbound more safely without cars crossing in front of them here. That said, it is now real pain for the driver who does want to access the westbound A184 from the south side as they have to go round the back of Gateshead, where the traffic is already very busy.

S Jennings 2020 7 November 2020

Absolute madness!!
Came across these changes yesterday trying to get my mother to a hospital appointment.
I had no choice but to go down the bus lane to then turn left into the Tyne Bridge, please can anyone tell me if the cameras are working yet ?
If do there is about 2/5 of us got stung yesterday .
It should be shown on the news in detail, I haven't the time to check if there has been any changes to my route every time I go out 😒😒😒

Dave 9 November 2020

Ah I marvelled at this junction for years on Bad Junctions but had the joy of using it when arriving from the Tyne Bridge to the Hilton which is on Bottle Bank (the steep hill down to the Swing Bridge).

Marvellous! At one point I was convinced I was facing the wrong way!

Ian B 4 December 2020

Got caught by this new camera on the 25th nov at 11.00 pm when most buses have stopped running, was behind a white van who stopped at the junction and missed one complete cycle of the lights, then carried out a 3 point turn in the middle of the junction and drove over the kerb to avoid the bus lane. Whilst still trying to figure out what the driver was doing, I drove forward towards the bridge (as I have for years) and bingo £60 of free cash for Gateshead Council. Anyone interested in forming a pressure group to go after these prats at Gateshead??

Chris5156 6 December 2020

A note to anyone else looking to post comments about the new bus-only restrictions on Askew Road or the camera that's been installed there: if you read the article above, it was written in 2009 and is not about the changes made in 2020.

Unfortunately, if you choose to drive along a road with large "buses only" and "bus lane cameras" signs, you will risk being photographed and fined. The best defence against this happening is not to drive in bus lanes.

Chris5156, you work for gateshead Council by any chance?

No, I don't work for any council or highway authority, or indeed in any field related to transport.

Bill 27 August 2021

I have just driven down Askew road, I followed an arrow clearly directing traffic in an ahead direction, the lane then had a dotted line across it with no place to turn or take another road, on the other side of the dotted line was marked 'bus lane' by that point there was no avoiding it. I was behind what appeared to be two private cars. This seems Morea way to trick people into parting with money rather than avoiding congestion.

As noted above, this article was written in 2009 and is not about the bus lane on Askew Road.

However, since you mention it - the lane that goes ahead at the junction is indicated on signs as leading towards a bus lane, so it should not be a surprise when you find one there. Road markings indicate that you can actually turn right from that lane too. If you then go straight ahead through the junction, the lane with a dotted line across it where the bus lane starts can be avoided by taking the left turn into Wellington Street. You could even just stop your car and find a gap in traffic to turn right because there is no box junction and no restriction on stopping. If you still decide to drive in a bus lane, having either failed to see the road signs and markings or seen them but failed to heed them, it is not somebody else's fault.

We all end up on autopilot on that junction. Too busy trying to see what others are doing on that nightmare to notice a few signs Gateshead Council had stuck up overnight. Traffic is even worse now, Trinity Square onto A184W - good luck.

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