The road then climbs a steep hill toward High Barnes, alongside the Bede site of the Sunderland College before becoming dual carriageway.

Within the first mile after the A19, the road comes to a notoriously bad intersection - which is frequented by a speed camera van on the Eastbound carriageway just outside the Evans Halshaw.

The road then runs through Houghton-le-Spring, via a locally famous transport feature named Houghton Cut.

This huge cut through the hillside was reputedly built with the forced labour of Napoleonic prisoners of war.

In 1815, French prisoners of war blasted this cut deeper than it already was, to improve the road to Sunderland's port.