M181 motorway

The M181 is a motorway in Lincolnshire that links the town of Scunthorpe, to the M180 motorway. A spur of the M180, the road is virtually straight through its entire two mile length. It was opened in December 1978, at the same time as the section of M180 from junction 3 (A15) to the east side of the River Trent (the bridge was not opened until late 1979).

Route

It begins just outside Scunthorpe, at the junction of the A1077 and A18. There is an out-of-town retail park, known locally as Gallagher Retail Park, which offers a wide variety of food and retail outlets, and Glanford Park, the home of Scunthorpe United Football Club at this junction. At the other end, the road has a junction for the M180 east, while the main carriageway merges with the M180 west. It originally had no intermediate junctions. It is built to typical British motorway standards, being two lanes in each direction, plus a hard shoulder for its entire length.

On 16 January 2019 as part of the Lincolnshire Lakes development, construction of a at-grade new roundabout junction along the M181 with the B1450 Burringham Road was planned, which would form the terminus of the motorway. In 2021, the northern section of the motorway from the new roundabout to its terminus at the A18/A1077 roundabout was renumbered A1077(M).

Junctions

M181 motorway junctions
Southbound exits (B carriageway)	Junction	Northbound exits (A carriageway)	Coordinates
Grimsby, Humber Bridge, Doncaster M180	M180, J3	Start of motorway	53°33’23"N, -0°42’40"W
Start of motorway	Terminus	Keadby, Gunness, Scunthorpe A18 Crosby, Barton-upon-Humber A1077	53°35’22"N, -0°41’54"W

Outside links

• Pathetic Motorways – M181
• UK Motorway Archive.
• Restaurants close to the motorway.