page_title: Southport
section_title: Road
hierarchical_section_title: Southport / Transport / Road
caption_attribution_description: Marine Way Bridge in Southport, Merseyside, England.
context_page_description: Southport is a large seaside town in Merseyside, England. At the 2001 census, it had a population of 90,336, making it the eleventh most populous settlement in North West England.
  Southport lies on the Irish Sea coast and is fringed to the north by the Ribble estuary. The town is 16.7 miles north of Liverpool and 14.8 miles southwest of Preston. It is the most northern town within the Liverpool City Region.
  Historically part of Lancashire, the town was founded in 1792 when William Sutton, an innkeeper from Churchtown, built a bathing house at what is now the south end of Lord Street. At that time, the area, known as South Hawes, was sparsely populated and dominated by sand dunes. At the turn of the 19th century, the area became popular with tourists due to the easy access from the nearby Leeds and Liverpool Canal. The rapid growth of Southport largely coincided with the Industrial Revolution and the Victorian era. Town attractions include Southport Pier, the second longest seaside pleasure pier in the British Isles, and Lord Street, an elegant tree-lined shopping street.
  Extensive sand dunes stretch for several miles from Woodvale to Birkdale, the south of the town.
context_section_description: Due to its position by the coast, Southport is a linear settlement and as such can only be approached in a limited number of directions by road.
  The main roads entering Southport are:
  A565 (from Preston to the northeast, from the A59 Liverpool – Preston – York)
  A570 (from Ormskirk and St Helens to the southeast)
  A565 (from Liverpool and Formby to the south)
  There is no direct connection to the motorway from Southport; the nearest connections are:
  from the east – junction 3 of the M58 (on the A570, twelve miles)
  from the south – junction 7 of the M57 (on the A565, fourteen miles)
  from the north – junction 1 of the M65 /  junction 29 of the M6 (on the A582/A59, nineteen miles)
  An east-west bypass for the A570 at Ormskirk is planned to relieve congestion on Southport's main access route to the motorway network, although the effectiveness of the proposals are still under debate.
  Several areas within Southport town centre have recently undergone major road redevelopment; the largest scheme was the construction of the Marine Way Bridge (opened May 2004), which connects the Lord Street shopping district with the new seafront developments. The 150-foot (46 m) high structure is thought to have cost in the region of £5 million.
  Also one of the main shopping areas in the town, Chapel Street, has undergone a pedestrianisation scheme to be similar to parts of Liverpool city centre.
caption: Marine Way Bridge
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