A19 road noise: how it affects nearby properties
The A19 runs up the eastern side of the North East, from North Yorkshire through Teesside to Sunderland and Tyneside, switching between fast rural dual carriageway and heavily used urban sections. Noise exposure varies markedly along the A19, so an address near the Teesside flyovers is a very different proposition to one in rural North Yorkshire.
Traffic on the A19: what the 2025 DfT counts show
The A19 is a road assembled from separate eras: the Thirsk bypass of September 1972, the Tees Viaduct of November 1975, the Billingham Bypass of 1982 and the Easingwold bypass of November 1994. Its 108 DfT count points reflect that mixture. The median is 32,700 vehicles a day, a quarter of points are under 10,300 and 27 are under ten thousand, yet 35 exceed fifty thousand and five exceed a hundred thousand. The busiest tenth start at 69,100 and the highest count is 110,220, against a lowest of 1,276 on the same road.
Travel north from Doncaster and the road gathers weight. The southern third has 26 points, a median of 12,100 and a maximum of 45,877. In the middle third, 17 points, the median is 37,900 and the maximum 110,220. In the northern third, 65 points, the median is 48,000 and the maximum is the same 110,220, with the busiest reading at that end. North of Thirsk the road is a fast dual carriageway with mostly grade-separated junctions, though Easingwold's bypass stayed single carriageway. The Norton to Wynyard stretch was widened to three lanes each way, the Testos junction gained a 142m flyover, and the road ends at Seaton Burn north of Newcastle, where it rejoins the A1.
On the A19 a typical count point has 5.5 per cent lorries, one in ten has more than 8.9 per cent, and the highest reaches 18.3, while the lowest is 0.6. The table uses 5.5 per cent. Where the road passes the flyovers and widened sections of Teesside the share may differ from the median, so the count point nearest the address is what counts.
| Quarter of points carry under | 10,300 vehicles/day |
|---|---|
| Median point | 32,700 vehicles/day |
| Three-quarters carry under | 57,400 vehicles/day |
| Busiest tenth carry over | 69,100 vehicles/day |
| Busiest single point | 110,220 vehicles/day |
The A19 on the ground
- Runs about 124 miles from Doncaster to Seaton Burn north of Newcastle, where it rejoins the A1. en.wikipedia.org
- North of Thirsk it is a fast dual carriageway with mostly grade-separated junctions; the Thirsk bypass opened in September 1972. en.wikipedia.org
- Easingwold bypass opened in November 1994 but remains single carriageway, unlike the dual carriageway sections elsewhere. en.wikipedia.org
- The Tees Viaduct opened in November 1975 as the first new Tees crossing in over forty years; the Billingham Bypass dual carriageway followed in 1982. ciht.org.uk
- Norton to Wynyard was widened to three lanes each way, with low-noise surfacing replacing the old concrete; reported finished early by December 2021. nationalhighways.co.uk
- The £130m Testos junction upgrade added a 142m flyover so A19 traffic bypasses the roundabout; it was reported complete in July 2021. gov.uk
How loud is the A19, and how fast does it fall away?
Reading the A19 rows: with 32,700 vehicles a day as a typical flow, the indicative Lden is 70 dB at 20 m from the nearest carriageway, 66 dB at 50 m, 64 dB at 100 m and 61 dB at 200 m. At 69,100 vehicles, the busier flow, those become 73, 69, 67 and 64 dB. WHO's 53 dB guideline sits below every one of them. The calculation is for open, flat, unscreened ground at 50 mph, so a home behind a bank or a building will differ, and a flyover or an at-grade junction will not run at 50 mph. The low-noise surfacing on the widened Norton to Wynyard stretch is not in the table either.
| Flow | 20 m | 50 m | 100 m | 200 m |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Typical section (32,700 vehicles/day) | 70 | 66 | 64 | 61 |
| Busiest tenth of sections (69,100+ vehicles/day) | 73 | 69 | 67 | 64 |
Areas near the A19
Passing through: North Yorkshire · County Durham · Tyne and Wear.
Housing around Middlesbrough, Stockton and Sunderland sits close to the busiest sections, some of it beside elevated flyovers with little natural screening. AcoustaPlot identifies which type of A19 section is nearest your property and calculates the road level for that section, so the estimate reflects your actual local conditions rather than the road's average.
Recent on the A19
National Highways' £51.6 million A19 Downhill Lane junction improvement, completed in March 2022 at the A19/A1290 junction in Sunderland, added a new roundabout, bridge and a separate path for pedestrians, cyclists and horse riders.
How AcoustaPLOT assesses A19 noise for your property
The A19 changes from rural dual carriageway to urban flyover, so the nearest count matters. AcoustaPLOT looks for one of the 108 DfT count points on the A19 within 8 km along the road, uses that measured flow and lorry share, and does not lean on a figure for the whole 124 miles. From there it adds the distance, terrain, ground, buildings or barriers and any other roads or rail. In practice that separates a point in the southern third, median 12,100, from one in the northern third, median 48,000. It reports the day-evening-night (Lden) and night-time (Lnight) levels at your facade, and reads Defra's mapped value for any railway noise where available.
Check my property near the A19 →
A19 noise: common questions
What does the Testos flyover do?
The £130m Testos junction upgrade added a 142m flyover so that A19 traffic bypasses the roundabout, and it was reported complete in July 2021. A count point beside a junction like this may include link flows as well as the main carriageway, because the DfT counts include some slip roads and links.
Is the Easingwold bypass dual carriageway?
No. It opened in November 1994 but remains single carriageway, unlike the dual carriageway sections elsewhere. North of Thirsk the A19 is a fast dual carriageway with mostly grade-separated junctions, and the Thirsk bypass opened in September 1972. A home near Easingwold therefore sits beside a different kind of road from one on the faster sections.
Which end of the A19 is busier, Doncaster or Newcastle?
The northern end. Its third has 65 points and a median of 48,000 vehicles a day, against 12,100 across 26 points in the southern third near Doncaster. The busiest reading is also at the northern end, at 110,220. Five points on the road exceed a hundred thousand in total, and the middle third has a median of 37,900 on 17 points.
Has the Norton to Wynyard widening changed the road surface?
Norton to Wynyard was widened to three lanes each way, with low-noise surfacing replacing the old concrete, and was reported finished early, by December 2021. At Downhill Lane in Sunderland, a £51.6 million junction improvement completed in March 2022 added a new roundabout, a bridge and a separate path. Both works finished before the 2025 counts, so nearby count points show the road as rebuilt.