Road Transport in Peterborough - Parkways and Major Roads - Soke Parkway (Longthorpe To Wansford)

Soke Parkway (Longthorpe To Wansford)

The Soke Parkway consists of the entire section of the A47 that runs through Peterborough. As a trunk route, the stretch of road is maintained by the Highways Agency, who have recently undertaken an update of road lighting on the route. This section of road is called the Soke Parkway (named after the Soke of Peterborough). When this was first built, in the mid-1970s, the A47 followed what is now the A1139 Paston Parkway. Apart from a roundabout on the eastern edge of the city, the parkway is an unbroken major dual carriageway. The road passes over the A15 (Paston Parkway) as a roundabout and than heads westwards passing one grade separated junction with a local road. The road then meets the city section of the A15 on an unusual junction. It crosses the East Coast Main Line near to a Morrisons (former Safeway), and Boulevard and Brotherhood retail parks in New England. After passing the A15 the A47 quickly heads south-westwards, where after passing another grade separated junction for local traffic the road meets the A1260 at Longthorpe. The Nene Parkway terminates in the Peterborough Longthorpe Grade separated junction (GSJ) (which opened in December 1987) where it meets the A1260 Nene Parkway. There is a GSJ for Bretton and a Sainsbury's, and it passes the Bretton Woods Community School. The £1.2m Peterborough Westwood GSJ opened in January 1987. After passing this junction the A47 heads westward into open countryside where it bypasses Castor and Ailsworth before the road becomes a single carriageway before reaching the A1 at Wransford.