A4061 road (Great Britain)

The A4061 is the main road linking Bridgend with Hirwaun via the Ogmore and Rhondda Valleys in South Wales. It is a mix of streets connecting former mining communities, and mountain passes built as relief work for unemployed miners.

The road was originally a dead-end from Bridgend along the Ogmore Valley built in the 19th century, but concerns over travel difficulties, environment and post-World War I unemployment in the Rhondda led to an extension over the mountains to Treorchy in the 1920s. A further section, from Treherbert northward to Hirwaun, was built later in the decade. As well as improving communications and transport, the A4061 allowed locals to visit the mountain summits easily for leisure purposes. Ice cream vans have been a regular feature at the two summits, Bwlch-y-Clawdd and Rhigos, since the 1930s.

The A4061 has been praised for its engineering and scenery, including a feature in National Geographic, and formed part of the Olympic Torch route in the run-up to the 2012 London Olympics.

The A4061 is about 25 miles (40 km) from south to north, but its winding sections make it longer in road miles. It has four main sections. From south to north these are the Ogmore Valley, the Bwlch-y-Clawdd Road (known to locals simply as "the Bwlch"), reaching a summit of 1,476 feet (450 m), the Rhondda Fawr Valley and the Rhigos Road, with a summit of 1,381 feet (421 m). The road meets the M4, a motorway through South Wales, Sarn Park services, the A4107 mountain road to Abergwynfi, the A4058 Rhondda Fawr valley road to Porth and Pontypridd and the Heads of the Valleys Road. The two mountain sections feature numerous hairpin bends, and the section along the Bwlch-y-Clawdd is sited on top of a perfect geological fault.

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Wikipedia