A54 road

The A54 road is a road in England linking Chester in Cheshire with Buxton in Derbyshire. Its route through both urban and steep rural areas presents a challenge to Cheshire County Council in maintaining the safety of the road.

History

Re-routing of the A54 away from the narrow cobbled streets of Congleton town centre was first proposed in 1935. Prior to this, at the point where the A34 now converges with the A54 an unusual 28 ft (8.5 m) lighthouse was erected in 1924 bearing the words "Dangerous hill - change to low gear", backlit at night, to reduce accidents at the sharp bend.

According to a 2007 report by the Road Safety Foundation for the European Road Assessment Programme (EuroRAP), the A54 is one of the most dangerous roads in the UK, second only to the A682 in Lancashire.

Again in 2008 the road was rated as one of the highest-risk roads in Great Britain by EuroRAP, with a risk rating of Medium to High on its most dangerous stretch between Buxton and Congleton. Eighteen fatal or serious-injury accidents occurred on this 24-kilometre (15 mi) stretch of single-carriageway road between 2003 and 2005, 26% of which were accidents at junctions.