Best route North West Wales to M6

[John.T]

Just enjoying a stay at the CAMC site at Coed Y Lynn near Portmadog with a Compass Capiro 550 and we came down the A494 after the M56 but it's quite steep and with a few bends. What route would anyone recommend to get back to the M56 then M6, avoiding the long route uphill ? Many thanks.

 

[otherclive]

It’s quite difficult to avoid hill coming out if Porthmadog, but the route north via Caernarfon and towards Bangor is a good road, albeit it increases your mileage quite a bit. You don’t have to go to Warrington as you could route towards Chester or Shrewsbury.
I’m not too familiar with the Chester, Wrexham area as we’ve always taken the A470to and from north wales, with or without caravan. We are at Penygroes this week.

 

[John.T]

Thank you. I will check this out. We did a day trip to Caernarfon and returned this way.

 

[otherclive]

Thank you. I will check this out. We did a day trip to Caernarfon and returned this way.

We went over to Anglesey yesterday and there is a brand new section of Expressway beyond Caernarfon to Bangor. My satnav recently updated still could not pick up the speed limit for its diisplay. We live in Wiltshire and for the journey up all navigation aids showed M6 then north wales coastal trunk road as quickest route despite being some 60 miles further than A470.

 

[RogerL]

The A55 route will still need you to cope with Rhuallt Hill, which is a 2 mile climb between junctions 28 and 29 and exceeds the normal guideline of 4%, I've seen figures of 7% and 10% quoted but I can't find the exact gradient - there is a crawler lane to help.

The old route, now by-passed was 16% !!!

 

[otherclive]

The A55 route will still need you to cope with Rhuallt Hill, which is a 2 mile climb between junctions 28 and 29 and exceeds the normal guideline of 4%, I've seen figures of 7% and 10% quoted but I can't find the exact gradient - there is a crawler lane to help.

The old route, now by-passed was 16% !!!

Is 4% the guideline for motorways, so A55 does not require to conform. Either way is a big improvement on the old road, and any well matched outfit will have no problems.

 

[RogerL]

Is 4% the guideline for motorways, so A55 does not require to conform. Either way is a big improvement on the old road, and any well matched outfit will have no problems.

The 4% is the guideline for all new roads - but it can be exceeded where the terrain makes that impractical - there are various motorways and dual carriageways which have needed to exceed the guideline.

The A55 dualling would have been built as a motorway but in some parts there's no room for a local access road (LAR) for motorway-prohibited traffic which is a requirement for any new motorway.

I mentioned the hill as the OP seems concerned about hills, not because Rhuallt is particularly bad.