137-560: The Westway is a 2.5-mile (4 km) elevated dual carriageway section of the A40 trunk road in West London running from Paddington in the east to North Kensington in the west. It connects the London Inner Ring Road to the West London suburbs. The road was constructed between 1962 and 1970 to connect the proposed London Ringways motorway scheme to Paddington, and opened as
274-528: A Ministry of Transport report, The Highway Development Survey, 1937 , which reviewed London's road needs and recommended the construction of many miles of new roads and the improvement of junctions at key congestion points. Amongst their proposals was the provision of a series of orbital roads around the city with the outer ones built as American-style Parkways – wide, landscaped roads with limited access and grade-separated junctions. These included an eastern extension of Western Avenue, which eventually became
411-426: A 'motorway/freeway' standard divided road. Most states only declare a divided road as a 'motorway' or 'freeway' if access is completely controlled . Speed limits are usually 100 km/h or 110 km/h. London Ringways The London Ringways were a series of four ring roads planned in the 1960s to circle London at various distances from the city centre. They were part of a comprehensive scheme developed by
548-414: A broken line indicating passing zones and a solid line indicating no passing zones and solid white baseline shoulder stripes. On undivided roads with more than one lane in each direction, the center is normally marked with a double solid line. The double solid stripe denotes that it is illegal to pass on the other side of the center line. Multilane one-way carriageways use broken white lines between lanes;
685-473: A built up area is indicated by the presence of street lights; on lit dual carriageways that are not considered to be in a built-up area, the speed limit will be clarified with intermittent signs. Although in Ireland the term dual carriageway technically applies to any road with physically separated lanes, it is usually used only to refer to those route sections that do not have a motorway designation. Most often it
822-567: A central median, usually fitted with guardrails. The most heavily used expressways in Croatia is the D10 road , connecting capital Zagreb to Vrbovec and Križevci . In the United States, this type of road may be called a divided highway, boulevard, parkway, expressway, freeway, or interstate, and has a grassy median or Jersey barrier separating the traffic directions. With few exceptions, all roads in
959-462: A central reservation is known as a single carriageway regardless of how many lanes there are. Dual carriageways have improved road traffic safety over the years and over single carriageways and typically have higher speed limits as a result. In some places, express lanes and local or collector lanes are used within a local-express-lane system to provide more capacity and to smooth out traffic flows for longer-distance travel. A very early (perhaps
1096-473: A freeway from the 1950s to 1970s. Opened to traffic in 1940, the 160-mile-long (260 km) Pennsylvania Turnpike was the first rural dual carriageway built in the United States. By 1955 several states had built dual carriageway freeways and turnpikes and in 1957 the Interstate Highway System began. Completed in 1994, the major highway system links all the major cities of the United States. In
1233-467: A lack of funding elsewhere, partial controlled-access "expressways" and limited-mobility divided arterial roads are more common in the western provinces where there are no specially numbered systems of freeways. On some portions of Ontario 's 400-series highway network, the median may be either steel guardrail or an Ontario tall-wall barrier rather than an unpaved strip, particularly in urban areas. Some partial limited-access divided highways such as
1370-472: A link from Paddington to Ringway 1 , the innermost circuit of the London Ringways network, part of a complex and comprehensive plan for a network of high speed roads circling and radiating out from central London designed to manage and control the flow of traffic. This plan had developed from early schemes prior to World War II through Patrick Abercrombie 's County of London Plan , published in 1943, and
1507-498: A median barrier preventing left turns (motorists have to use a "turnabout" overpass to access exits on the opposing direction). Speed limits in Canada are usually 80 to 90 km/h on signalized divided highways and 100 to 120 km/h on freeways. In Australia, dual carriageways are referred to in some regions as divided roads, though there is no official terminology. Each state's road agency has its own definition of what constitutes
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#17328590314831644-678: A motorway. Reports suggested between 15,000 and 80,000 Londoners would lose their homes as a result of the Ringways. The Treasury and the Ministry of Transport both came out against the scheme, primarily because of worries over the cost. The Chancellor of the Exchequer Roy Jenkins said he could not prevent the GLC from proposing the schemes, but assumed that the government could ultimately prevent them from being implemented. Despite this opposition,
1781-490: A narrow strip of trees down the middle. In 1907 the Long Island Motor Parkway opened, and roughly 20% of it featured a semi-dual-carriageway design. The New York City Belt Parkway system, which was built between 1907 and 1934, also pioneered the same design. However the majority of it featured concrete or brick railings as lane dividers instead of grass medians. In the year of 1924 the first Italian autostrada
1918-539: A new school. In March 1971, it was announced that all 41 homes on Acklam Road would be demolished. By 1972, it had been estimated approximately 5,000 families had lost their homes for each mile of the Westway constructed. In 1974, the GLC announced 11.5 acres (4.7 ha) of land in Notting Hill to the north of the Westway would be compulsory purchased and redeveloped with new apartments and screening walls to reduce noise from
2055-593: A new standard was set to designate certain high-quality routes formally as "Expressways". Many roads such as the A1 , the A14 , the A19 and the A42 are built to a high quality, with grade-separated junctions, full barriers at roadside and central reservations and, in some cases, three lanes of traffic. They may still fall short of motorway standard in terms of hard shoulders, the height of overpasses or
2192-530: A period of several years and were subject to a continuing process of review and modification. Roads were added and omitted as the overall scheme was altered, and many alternative route alignments were considered during the planning process The plan was published in stages starting with Ringway 1 in 1966 and Ringway 2 in 1967. After the Conservatives won the GLC elections in the latter year, they confirmed that both Ringways would be constructed as planned. The plan
2329-494: A precedent for future highways. Although it, like the first autostrada , did not feature a dual-carriageway design, it inspired the mass construction of future high-speed roadways. During the 1930s, Germany, Italy, and the Soviet Union began construction of a network of dual carriageway expressways. By 1942, Germany had over 3,200 km (2,000 mi) of dual carriageway roads, Italy had nearly 1,300 km (810 mi), and
2466-524: A radius of 12 miles from St Paul's ". Between 1913 and 1916, a series of conferences took place, bringing all road plans in Greater London together as a single body. Over the next decade, 214 miles (344 km) of new roads were constructed, primarily as post-war unemployment relief. These included the North Circular Road from Hanger Lane to Gants Hill , Western Avenue and Eastern Avenue ,
2603-416: A result of their misjudging the speed of approaching traffic on the other carriageway when doing so. The majority of dual carriageway roads now have barriers. Some are heavy concrete obstructions which can bounce a vehicle back into the path of other traffic; others are made from steel ropes mounted on moderately weak posts, where the rope cuts into the vehicle body to slow the vehicle while keeping it against
2740-706: A ring that was distinctly box-shaped, and Ringway 1 was unofficially called the London Motorway Box . In 1963, Colin Buchanan published a report, Traffic in Towns , which had been commissioned by the Transport Minister, Ernest Marples . In contrast to earlier reports, it cautioned that road building would generate and increase traffic and cause environmental damage. It also recommended pedestrianisation of town centres and segregating different traffic types. The report
2877-619: A route further to the south where the road could be constructed with less destruction of local communities. Starting in the London Borough of Greenwich at the southern end of the new tunnel in Thamesmead, the planned route for the new southern section of Ringway 2 would have first interchanged with the A2016 then headed south, first through Plumstead towards Plumstead Common and then, via open land, to Shooters Hill Road ( A207 ). Controversially,
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#17328590314833014-565: A significant London landmark and has been noted in several works of popular culture. The road is 2.5 miles (4 km) long and is located in the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea . At its eastern end, the Westway starts to the west of the Marylebone Flyover ( A501 ), which takes traffic over the junction of Edgware Road ( A5 ) and Marylebone Road (part of
3151-479: A starting point and reused many of his proposals in the outlying areas but scrapped the plans in the inner zone. Abercrombie's A Ring was scrapped as being far too expensive and impractical. The innermost circuit, Ringway 1, was approximately the same distance from the centre as the B Ring. It used some of Abercrombie's suggested route, but it was planned to use existing transport corridors, such as railway lines, much more than before. The location of these lines produced
3288-617: A time, temporarily designated as part of the M11. At its eastern end, Ringway 2 was planned to have crossed the River Thames at Gallions Reach in a new tunnel between Beckton and Thamesmead . Although this tunnel was never built, the utility of an additional river crossing in this area continued to be recognised during the decades after the Ringway Scheme's cancellation and various proposals for an East London River Crossing have been developed,
3425-902: A viaduct. It continued along the North London line through Hackney and Homerton , leading to a junction with the East Cross Route at Hackney Wick . The whole of the East Cross Route was built. It runs south from Hackney Wick as the A12 (previously designated as the A102(M) and A102 ) to Bow Road , then, as the A102, under the River Thames via the Blackwall Tunnel to the Sun in the Sands roundabout at Blackheath , then as
3562-510: Is autovía (literally autoway ). All of them are government-owned and not tolled. First-generation autovías, built in the 1980s and early 1990s, were just duplications in parallel of existing roads, as shown in the photograph. Modern autovías are two carriageways built from scratch, leaving the old road they replace as an alternative route for pedestrians, bicycles and other non-motorized vehicles. Private properties may have direct access to an autovía, as well as bus stops and gas stations in
3699-399: Is national roads (roads with a route number prefix of N ; e.g. N8 ) that are built as or upgraded to dual carriageway. A number of non-national roads (for example, regional roads ) are dual carriageway, for example in urban areas near or in cities, or where the road was part of a national route. Dual carriageways of this class differ from motorways in a number of ways. The hard shoulder
3836-450: Is demarcated with a dashed yellow line (as opposed to an unbroken yellow line on motorways). The standard speed limit of 100 km/h (62 mph) for national routes usually applies (by default the limit is 80 km/h (50 mph) for non-national roads, even if dual carriageway). Local authorities have the power to apply a limit of up to 120 km/h (75 mph) as used on most motorways (The High Quality Dual Carriageway section of
3973-532: Is entitled "Westway". The Westway is referenced in Pete Doherty 's "Broken Love Song", in the line "By the Westway, Inside The Scrubs ", as he claimed to have once lived beside the Westway in a caravan. It is also featured on the front cover of A Weekend in the City by Bloc Party . The picture, part of A Modern Project was taken by German photographer Rut Blees Luxemburg . The Westway is also seen in various shots in
4110-552: The County of London Plan in 1943. The Ringways originated from these earlier plans, and consisted of the main four ring roads and other developments. Certain sections were upgrades of existing earlier projects such as the North Circular, but much of it was new-build. Construction began on some sections in the 1960s in response to increasing concern about car ownership and traffic. The Ringway plans attracted vociferous opposition towards
4247-519: The A1 east and south to the current junction 3 with the M20 ) was to be built and connected to the southern and western section of Ringway 4 to create the M25. The remaining parts of the two rings became redundant. The South Mimms to Potters Bar section (junction 23 to junction 24) was opened in 1975, temporarily designated as an A-road ( A1178 ). The remaining sections of the northern Ringway 3 were constructed over
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4384-637: The A2 to Kidbrooke , meeting the South Cross Route. The South Cross Route ran beneath Blackheath Park in a tunnel, following railways as much as possible for its route though Peckham , Brixton , where it was planned to connect with the " South Cross Route to Parkway D Radial " a motorway running south-east to Ringway 3, and Clapham to Nine Elms . There was then a link to the West Cross Route and Ringway 2 at Wandsworth . The West Cross Route followed
4521-513: The A40(M) . It was the first urban motorway project in London and attracted criticism for the lack of care over the environment, the well-being of local residents and communities, and the handling of those whose homes would be demolished. Road protests increased following its opening. In 2000, the Westway was downgraded to an all-purpose road after the formation of Transport for London . The road has become
4658-561: The Autobahn network programme but still have the blue signs (e. g. the B 59 , formerly A 540 near Grevenbroich ); and on the other hand some former non- Autobahn (yellow) motorways have been added to Autobahn budgeting but the signs have not been changed either (e. g. parts of the B 6 , now A 36 in the north of the Harz highland area in Saxony-Anhalt). Motorways that are neither in
4795-485: The Grand Union Canal branch to Paddington Basin . As the road passes Westbourne Green on the north and Royal Oak Underground Station on the south, it gains a lane from a climbing slip-road from Gloucester Terrace. Eastbound, one lane diverges from the mainline to a sliproad crossing the railway to Paddington station via Westbourne Bridge . The bridge once carried traffic from Harrow Road to Bishops Bridge Road but
4932-708: The Great West Road bypassing Brentford , and bypasses of Kingston , Croydon , Watford and Barnet . In 1924, the Ministry of Transport proposed another circular route, the North Orbital Road. This ran further out from London than the North Circular and was planned to be around 70 miles (110 km) long, running from the A4 at Colnbrook to the A13 at Tilbury . In May 1938, Sir Charles Bressey and Sir Edwin Lutyens published
5069-622: The Greater London Council (GLC) to alleviate traffic congestion on the city's road system by providing high-speed motorway -standard roads within the capital, linking a series of radial roads taking traffic into and out of the city. There had been plans to construct new roads around London to help traffic since at least the 17th century. Several were built in the early 20th century such as the North Circular Road , Western Avenue and Eastern Avenue , and further plans were put forward in 1937 with The Highway Development Survey , followed by
5206-493: The Hanlon Parkway and Black Creek Drive have stop-controlled at-grade intersections and private entrances, but have sufficient right-of-way to convert them to full freeways with interchanges if traffic warrants. There are also RIRO expressways , such as Highway 11 and a portion of Highway 35 , which are not full freeways since they allow access to existing properties, but traffic speeds are faster than regular roads due to
5343-602: The London Inner Ring Road ). Between the Westway and the flyover, a section of surface-level road allows westbound traffic from the flyover to turn-off on to the Harrow Road ( A404 ) or eastbound traffic from the Harrow Road to access the flyover. Eastbound traffic from the Westway cannot exit here to reach the Edgware Road and continues on to the flyover. Heading west, the Westway rises as it passes Paddington Green and crosses
5480-523: The London Underground . The GLC attempted to hold on to the Ringway plans until the early 1970s, hoping that they would eventually be built. By 1972, in an attempt to placate the Ringway plan's vociferous opponents, the GLC removed the northern section of Ringway 1 and the southern section of Ringway 2 from the proposals. In January 1973, the enquiry recommended that Ringway 1 be built, but that much of
5617-547: The M20 motorway (then also being planned) near Wrotham in Kent and ran west as motorway around the capital to Hunton Bridge near Watford. From Watford, the road was to head east until it met Ringway 3 near Navestock in Essex . Construction began on the first section of the motorway between Godstone and Reigate (junctions 6 to 8) in 1973, and included a junction with the M23 motorway which
Westway (London) - Misplaced Pages Continue
5754-676: The Mediterranean world . This influx of road activity necessitated the construction of a dual thoroughfare as the road approached the Porta Portese , the corresponding gate in the Aurelian Walls of Rome for the Via Portuensis . One claim for the first divided highway in the United States was Savery Avenue in Carver, Massachusetts , first built in 1860, where the two roadways were separated by
5891-686: The N1 between the end of the M1 and the border with Northern Ireland and the N25/N22 Ballincollig Bypass in Cork are the only route sections with such special limits). Traffic lights and junctions are permitted at grade on dual carriageways. For older sections of dual carriageway, this has resulted in fewer flyover junctions. Newer dual carriageway sections are usually near motorway standard, with grade-separated junctions, but may not be designated as motorways due to
6028-616: The Pink Fairies , played several free benefit and charity concerts underneath the motorway, pictures of which appeared on the inner sleeve of Hawkwind's second album In Search of Space . One such concert by the Pink Fairies under the Westway - disrupted by the police because a neighbour complained that was unable to hear his television over the noise - is referenced in the track "Right On Fight On" on their second album What A Bunch Of Sweeties . The opening track on Sky 's 1979 debut album
6165-508: The West Cross Route ( A3220 ) and flyover above this, crossing the Central line and Wood Lane ( A219 ) before returning to ground level and continuing to the junction with Old Oak Common Lane where Westway connects end-on to the eastern end of Western Avenue . From the elevated road between Westbourne Park and Ladbroke Grove, Trellick Tower is visible to the north; east of the roundabout,
6302-644: The West London line , with a bridge over the Thames near Chelsea Basin. There was a planned interchange with Cromwell Road ( A4 ) at Earl's Court and with Holland Park Avenue at Shepherd's Bush . The section north Shepherd's Bush to the Westway was constructed as planned. North of the Westway, it would have continued to follow the West London line, crossing the Great Western railway and the Grand Union Canal , linking with
6439-475: The Westway . Bressey's plans called for significant demolition of existing properties, that would have divided communities if they had been built. However, he reported that the average traffic speed on three of London's radial routes was 12.5 miles per hour (20.1 km/h), and consequently their construction was essential. The plans stalled, as the London County Council were responsible for roads in
6576-674: The autobahn network nor in the Bundesstraße network are given black on white signs, following the same sign code as high-speed dual carriageways—this is mostly seen on urban trunk roads. Italian Highway Code ( Codice della strada ) divides dual carriageways into three different classifications: Italian type-B and type-C roads do not follow a specific numbering criterion. They may be numbered as Strade Statali (SS; "state roads"), Strade Regionali (SR; "regional roads"), Strade Provinciali (SP; "provincial roads") or Strade Comunali (SC; "municipal roads"). The Spanish word for dual carriageway
6713-508: The cabinet cancelled funding and hence the project. Ringway 1 was the London Motorway box, comprising the North , East , South and West Cross Routes. Ringway 1 was planned to comprise four sections across the capital forming a roughly rectangular box of motorways. These sections were designated: Much of the scheme would have been constructed as elevated roads on concrete pylons and
6850-400: The 17th century. Various select committees were established in the late 1830s and early 1840s in order to establish means of improving communication and transport in the city. The Royal Commission on London Traffic (1903–05) produced eight volumes of reports on roads, railways and tramways in the London area, including a suggestion for "constructing a circular road about 75 miles in length at
6987-506: The 1930s. South of the river, Ringway 2 would have headed roughly toward the North Circular Road at Chiswick , though there was no definite proposed route. Much of the Ringway, particularly the southern section where a new route was required, would have been placed in cuttings to mitigate disruption to local residents. The North Circular Road was to have been improved to motorway standard along its existing route. Some plans refer to
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#17328590314837124-661: The 1990 movie Nuns on the Run . Notes Citations Sources 51°30′56″N 0°13′15″W / 51.51556°N 0.22083°W / 51.51556; -0.22083 Dual carriageway A dual carriageway ( BrE ) or a divided highway ( AmE ) is a class of highway with carriageways for traffic travelling in opposite directions separated by a central reservation (BrE) or median (AmE). Roads with two or more carriageways which are designed to higher standards with controlled access are generally classed as motorways , freeways, etc., rather than dual carriageways. A road without
7261-467: The British Road Federation surveyed 2,000 Londoners, 80% of whom favoured more new roads being built. In contrast, a public enquiry was held to review the GLDP in a climate of strong and vocal opposition from many of the London Borough councils and residents associations that would have seen motorways driven through their neighbourhoods. The Westway and a section of the West Cross Route from Shepherd's Bush to North Kensington , opened in 1970. It showed
7398-474: The GLC continued to develop its plans, and began the construction of some of the parts of the scheme. The plan, still with much of the detail to be worked out, was included in the Greater London Development Plan, 1969 (GLDP) along with much else not related to roads and traffic management. In 1970, the GLC estimated that the cost of building Ringway 1 along with sections of 2 and 3 would be £1.7 billion (approximately £33.2 billion as of 2023). In 1970,
7535-422: The GLC expected the 25-mile (40 km) long southern ring to cost £305m, including £63m for property purchases. It would require 1,007 acres (4.08 km ) and affect 5,705 houses. Ringway 3 was a new road, the north section of which became part of the M25 from South Mimms to Swanley via the Dartford Crossing . It was intended for traffic bypassing London, and was a central government scheme outside of
7672-403: The Local Government Act 2001. Accordingly, hard shoulders are included wherever feasible to provide for the resulting pedestrian and cyclist traffic, and are present on much of the national route network. These hard shoulders may also be used as running lanes by motorised traffic under certain conditions. Until 2005, many motorways and dual carriageways in Ireland did not have crash barriers in
7809-447: The London Borough of Greenwich, the motorway crossed to Baring Road (the A2212 ) near Grove Park station . After this, there was a cut-and-cover tunnel underneath playing fields at Whitefoot Lane, followed by an elevated section over Bromley Road ( A21 ). West of Bromley Road, Ringway 2 remained on an elevated alignment towards Beckenham Hill station . From here, it continued through more open land towards Lower Sydenham station where
7946-450: The North Cross Route at Willesden Junction. Ringway 2 was an upgrade of the North Circular Road (A406) and a new motorway to replace the South Circular Road (A205). The North Circular Road was largely a coherent route (see "Background" above), but the South Circular Road was merely a signposted route through the suburbs of South London on pre-existing sections of standard roads, involving twists and turns, selected by route planners in
8083-415: The Ringways as a complete scheme, protesters against specific parts of it in different areas were able to unite against a common goal, which led to the Layfield Inquiry successfully challenging the proposals. The Labour party made large gains in the GLC elections of April 1973 with a policy of fighting the Ringways scheme. Given the continuing fierce opposition across London and the likely enormous cost,
8220-483: The Ringways were re-used for other road schemes in the 1980s and 1990s, most significantly the M25 , which was created out of two different sections of Ringways joined together. The project caused an increase in road protesting and an eventual agreement that new road construction in London was not generally possible without huge disruption. Since 2000, Transport for London has promoted public transport and discouraged road use. London has been significantly congested since
8357-418: The Soviet Union had 400 km (250 mi). What may have been the world's first long-distance intercity dual carriageway/freeway was the Queen Elizabeth Way in Southern Ontario in Canada, initially linking the large cities of Toronto and Hamilton together by 1939, with construction on this stretch of the present-day Queen Elizabeth Way beginning in 1936 as "Middle Road". It was gradually upgraded to
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#17328590314838494-611: The UK, although the term "dual carriageway" applies to any road with physically separated lanes, it is frequently used as a descriptive term for major routes built in this style. Such major dual carriageways usually have two lanes of traffic in each direction, with the lane nearest the centre being reserved for overtaking. Occasionally dual carriageways have only one lane in each direction, or more than two lanes each way (sometimes to permit easier overtaking of slower uphill traffic). Different speed limits apply on dual carriageway sections from those that apply on single carriageway sections of
8631-414: The West Cross Route between North Kensington and Shepherd's Bush was opened by John Peyton and Michael Heseltine in 1970, simultaneously with Westway , to protests; some residents hung a huge banners with 'Get us out of this Hell – Rehouse Us Now' outside their windows and protesters disrupted the opening procession by driving a lorry the wrong way along the new road. The East Cross Route, incorporating
8768-428: The Westway, saying "a more inappropriate and negative use for the space could not be imagined". The North Kensington Amenity Trust (now Westway Development Trust ), was founded in 1971 to develop the land for local community use. Since 2000, local charity Urban Eye has initiated a programme of cleaning, painting, and lighting to improve the visual appearance and safety of the areas under the flyover structure. Because of
8905-435: The Westway. Shortly after opening, a group of residents planned to blockade the motorway and stop traffic in protest at the excessive noise of the road. Eight houses on Walmer Road, North Kensington, severed by the construction of the Westway, were planned to be demolished and their residents re-homed, but there were no plans for other nearby properties. Until 1973, there was no legal obligation to compensate anyone living outside
9042-495: The Westway. The land underneath the road was used as a setting for riots in the films Breaking Glass and Sammy and Rosie Get Laid . Episode Mangrove of the anthology series Small Axe features a time lapse visual effects montage of the Westway construction. Westway was a BBC World Service radio series that ran from 1997 until 2005. It featured the community surrounding the road. The Westway has featured in songs by several British rock bands. The Clash referred to
9179-542: The architect/planner Lord Esher and Michael Thomson, a transport economist at the London School of Economics , calculated that costs had been enormously underestimated and would show marginal economic returns. They predicted large quantities of additional traffic that would be generated purely as a result of the new roads. Access to the new roads would soon be overwhelmed even before the rings and radial roads were near capacity, while about 1 million Londoners would find their lives blighted by living within 200 yards of
9316-410: The area west of Westbourne Park, where several roads were truncated or demolished to make way for the concrete structures. London County Council architect Hubert Bennett speculated that some sections of the road viaduct would pass within 20 feet (6.1 m) of people's homes. Compulsory purchases of properties began in 1962, with an estimated 3,356 people needing to be rehoused. Many properties on
9453-428: The barrier until it has stopped. Often on urban dual carriageways where the road has been converted from a four-lane single carriageway the central reservation will not be substantial: often just a small steel divider to save space. Turning right (that is, across the line of traffic heading in the opposite direction) is usually permitted only at specific locations. Often the driver will be required to turn left (away from
9590-406: The basis of their structure these roads have, comparable to the German autobahn , the legal foundation that no default speed limit exists (design speed 130 km/h), although the standard advisory speed limit ( German : Richtgeschwindigkeit ) still exists. Nevertheless, expressways are often given speed limit signs. Exit signs. At the moment some (blue) motorways have been taken out of
9727-418: The boundaries of the highway, no matter how close their property was or what nuisance the road may have caused. On 9 August 1970, the Westway was closed for an hour after a group of 80 protesters marched along the road carrying placards. Four people were arrested. The following month, the GLC announced that a further 28 homes on Walmer Road would be compulsory purchased and the residents moved, in order to build
9864-494: The capital, and could not find adequate funding. The Ringway plan had developed from early schemes prior to the Second World War through Sir Patrick Abercrombie's County of London Plan , 1943 and Greater London Plan , 1944 . One of the topics that Abercrombie's two plans had examined was London's traffic congestion, and The County of London Plan proposed a series of ring roads labelled A to E to help remove traffic from
10001-565: The central area. Even in a war-ravaged city with large areas requiring reconstruction, the building of the two innermost rings, A and B, would have involved considerable demolition and upheaval. The cost of the construction works needed to upgrade the existing London streets and roads to dual carriageway or motorway standards was considered significant; the A ring would have displaced 5,300 families. Because of post-war funding shortages, Abercrombie's plans were not intended to be carried out immediately. They were intended to be gradually built over
10138-682: The central reservation, the policy being to use a wider median instead. Crash barriers are now mandatory for such routes, and wire cabling or full crash barriers (depending on whether or not the route is a motorway, and median width) have been fitted to existing routes. Between 2000 and 2010, three major types of dual carriageway were built on national road schemes in Ireland: In Germany the term Autobahnähnliche Straße (motorway-like road) refers to roads that are similar to German autobahn in grade-separation and signage. Most of them are designated as Kraftfahrstraßen (expressways), which means that
10275-725: The construction costs and public opposition of the Westway, most of the London Ringways scheme was cancelled in 1973. The Westway, the West Cross Route and East Cross Route in east London were the only significant parts to be built. Other parts of the Ringway network were later built as all-purpose roads , including the M11 link road from Hackney to Redbridge , which drew major protests and opposition . Westway lost its motorway status in May 2000 when responsibility for trunk roads in Greater London
10412-536: The construction work in 1968, aged nineteen. The road was opened to traffic by the Minister of Transport John Peyton and junior transport minister Michael Heseltine on 28 July 1970 at a total cost of £30 million (£586 million in 2023), and classified A40(M). At its opening the road was the largest continuous elevated structure in Europe and was constructed with some advanced features, such as heating grids on slopes to control
10549-502: The current M25 junction 23 with the A1 clockwise to the current junction 3 with the M20). Two additional sections of motorway were added to the plan to join the two original sections and the remaining parts of the two rings were cancelled. The south-eastern section of Ringway 4 between Wrotham and Sevenoaks was redesignated as the M26 . Except for a deviation from the original plan around Leatherhead,
10686-628: The current M26 and the M25 between junctions 5 and 19 mostly follow the planned Ringway 4 route. One short section of the dual-carriageway portion of Ringway 4 was constructed in Hoddesdon linking the town to the A10 . In the central London area, only the East Cross Route and part of the West Cross Route of Ringway 1 were constructed together with the elevated Westway which links Paddington to North Kensington . These were all begun and completed before
10823-435: The dual carriageway) in order to loop around to an access road that permits crossing the major road. Roundabouts on dual carriageways are relatively common, especially in cities or where the cost of a grade-separated junction would be prohibitive. Where space is even more limited, intersections may be controlled by traffic lights. Smaller residential roads adjoining urban dual carriageways may be blocked off at one end to limit
10960-744: The easiest alignment, the Ringway continued towards a junction with the A24 at Colliers Wood . An elevated section alongside the Sutton Loop Line between Tooting and Haydons Road took it up to the Wandle Valley. It crossed the South West Main Line to meet the A3 at a major junction in Wandsworth . From here, it continued to Putney alongside railways, before meeting the northern section at Chiswick. In 1970
11097-437: The end of the decade over the demolition of properties and noise pollution the roads would cause. Local newspapers published the intended routes, which caused an outcry among local residents living on or near them who would have their lives irreversibly disrupted. Following an increasing series of protests, the scheme was cancelled in 1973, at which point only three sections had been built. Some traffic routes originally planned for
11234-597: The entire length featured a dual-carriageway design. In the early 1930s, it was extended southward all the way to Naples and northward to Florence. Most of the original routing was destroyed by the Allies in World War II. By 1930 several US and European cities had built dual-carriageway highways, mostly to control traffic jams and/or to provide bypass routes for traffic. In 1932 the first German autobahn opened between Cologne and Bonn. It ran 21 km (13 mi) and became
11371-663: The federally funded Interstate Highway System are fully controlled access divided highways known as freeways . A broader definition, expressways , includes both freeways and partial limited-access divided highways, and "expressway" is often used specifically to refer to the latter. United States Numbered Highways , state highways and other locally maintained highways may also be divided. Speed limits on rural divided highways range from 65 to 75 miles per hour (105 to 121 km/h), with some portions as high as 80 miles per hour (130 km/h). One privately run toll road in Texas, SH 130, has
11508-499: The first section of the motorway between South Mimms and Potters Bar in 1973 and the motorway was initially designated as the M16 motorway before its opening. While the construction of the first section was in progress, the plan for Ringways 3 and 4 were modified considerably. Broadly speaking, the northern and eastern section of Ringway 3 (from the current junction 23 of the M25 motorway with
11645-594: The first) example of a dual carriageway was the Via Portuensis , built in the first century by the Roman emperor Claudius between Rome and its harbor of Portus . The route between the city and the port experienced a great deal of commercial and pedestrian traffic, as Portus served as the primary avenue for the grain shipments of the Cura Annonae into Rome, as well as transporting the majority of goods imported from across
11782-417: The following year's Greater London Plan, to a 1960s Greater London Council (GLC) scheme that would have involved the construction of motorway-standard roads across the city, requiring substantial demolition. The elevated roundabout junction with the West Cross Route was built with the capability to be extended once the planned northern continuation of the latter road was constructed to Harlesden . Two stubs on
11919-415: The formation of ice. After completion a corridor of wasteland remained below the motorway, which the government had no plans to develop. The Westway was planned and constructed in an era before environmental impacts were routinely considered, and it caused controversy at the time for the effects it and the vehicles it carried had upon the local community and the environment. At the opening ceremony, Heseltine
12056-668: The generic speed limit is 120 km/h (75 mph), minimum speed is 60 km/h (37 mph), driving backwards is strictly prohibited, and they shall not have at-grade junctions. Dual carriageways or expressways in Croatia (Croatian: brza cesta ) are non- tolled roads with 2 or more lanes in each direction, but without emergency lanes . The main motorways in Croatia are also dual carriageways, but they have emergency lanes and tolls. Many bypasses and beltways of smaller cities in Croatia have been recently constructed or planned as dual carriageways. All dual carriageways in Croatia house
12193-533: The hard shoulders. A controlled-access highway (motorway) in Spain is referred to as autopista (literally autotrack ). They may be operated by private companies and be tolled. The two major accesses to Spain from France, AP-7 into Catalonia and AP-8 into the Basque Country , are autopistas. In comparison, the prime road between Spain and Portugal is the photographed autovía A-5 . In both autopistas and autovías,
12330-478: The highest speed limit in the United States at 85 miles per hour (137 km/h). Urban divided highways which are at grade and typically have much lower speed limits are sometimes called boulevards . In keeping with the U.S. Department of Transportation 's Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), since the early 1970s all divided highways are striped by color to show the direction of traffic flow. Two-way undivided roads have an amber center line, with
12467-663: The introduction the Irish Planning system in 1964. Today Irish planning policy prohibits such development on National Primary or National Secondary roads where the speed limit exceeds 60 km/h (37 mph). This policy results from concerns expressed by the National Roads Authority. A local authority is not obliged to implement this policy and can disregard this policy at its own discretion. This would usually only occur in exceptional circumstances or where planners are overruled by elected councillors using section 140 of
12604-480: The junction of the North Circular Road and the A10 was only completed in 1990 after several other schemes had been blocked. At the western end of the North Circular Road a new section of motorway would have been constructed to take the route of Ringway 2 eastwards from the junction with the M4 at Gunnersbury along the course of the railway line through Chiswick to meet and cross the River Thames at Barnes . This section
12741-704: The lanes of an existing road (for example US Highway 33 between Elkhart and Goshen in northern Indiana). Like other countries, there are several types of divided highways; fully controlled-access divided routes with interchanges (commonly known as "freeways" in the United States, Australia, and regionally within Canada), expressways that often include a mix of interchanges and traffic signals, and divided arterial roads that are almost entirely stop-controlled. Unlike some other countries, divided dual carriageways in Canada are seldom equipped with traffic circles , roundabouts, or rotaries as alternatives to stoplights. In Canada,
12878-403: The line of the route were put on short-term rental or left derelict. The local area was disrupted by the flow of heavy goods traffic moving materials to the construction site and taking spoil away. The road was mostly constructed from pre-stressed and post-tensioned concrete, which was cast offsite and moved into position as required. Tensioning cables were then passed through conduits cast into
13015-535: The median-side baseline is solid amber, and the right sideline is solid white. Frequently in the U.S. the two carriageways are separated by some distance (wide medians with small forests or even hills in them), but drivers can always tell whether the roadway is two-way or one-way—and, if one-way, the direction in which the traffic flows—by looking at the striping coloration. For an example, see inset showing U.S. Route 52 near Lafayette, Indiana . Some divided highways have been turned into undivided highways by widening
13152-462: The most recent of which was the Thames Gateway Bridge , cancelled in 2008. The South Circular Road was in the 1960s, and remains still, little more than an arbitrary route through the southern half of the city following roads that are mainly just single carriageway. The road planners considered the existing routing unsuitable for a direct upgrade so a new replacement motorway was planned for
13289-399: The motorway would have turned south to run alongside the railway line past New Beckenham station . It then rose to an interchange with Elmers End Road ( A214 ). Continuing along the railway line south-west of Birkbeck station , near Cambridge Road there was a proposed interchange with another of the GLC's planned motorways, the "South Cross Route to Parkway D Radial" coming south-east along
13426-409: The motorway. The project has since been condemned for the negative effect it had on local communities and housing, and contributed to the increased interest in anti-road protesting. The British Road Federation called the Westway "one of the insensitive and socially unacceptable examples of motorways." The North Kensington Playspace Group was established in 1966 by Adam Ritchie, who strongly criticised
13563-678: The need to preserve access to adjoining property or to the absence of a non-motorway alternative route. Also, dual carriageways that are not motorway classified do not need to be equipped with emergency phones. Motorway restrictions only apply to motorway sections, rather than all dual carriageway sections of national roads (these are signposted with the N prefix on the route number, rather than M ). Some national secondary roads , and regional roads in particular often have houses, schools and other developments fronting on to them. Less important national primary roads , and older sections not yet upgraded may also feature such developments built before
13700-612: The new 'eastern bore' of the Blackwall Tunnel opened in 1967, was completed in 1979. The North Cross Route began south of Willesden Junction and followed the North London line eastwards then passed under the Midland main line and Metropolitan line at West Hampstead , where it was intended to meet a planned extension of the M1 motorway with a link to Finchley Road . It diverged away from
13837-471: The next 30 years. The subsequent austerity period meant that very little of his plan was carried out. The A Ring was formally cancelled by Clement Attlee 's Labour government in May 1950. After 1951, the County of London focused on improving existing roads rather than Abercrombie's proposals. By the start of the 1960s, the number of private cars and commercial vehicles on the roads had increased considerably from
13974-413: The next eleven years: the M25 motorway was completed in 1986 with the opening of the Ringway 4 to Ringway 3 linking section from Micklefield to South Mimms (junction 19 to junction 23). One part of Ringway 3 in west London was eventually built as The Parkway/Hayes Bypass ( A312 ). Unlike many other Ringway proposals it was favourably viewed by local residents, for it solved serious congestion problems. It
14111-536: The number before the war. British car manufacturing doubled between 1953 and 1960. The Conservative government, led by Prime Minister Harold Macmillan , had strong ties to the road transport industry, with more than 70 members of parliament being members of the British Road Federation . Political pressure to build roads and improve vehicular traffic increased, which led to a revival of Abercrombie's plans. The Ringway plan took Abercrombie's earlier schemes as
14248-517: The number of junctions on the dual carriageway; often other roads will pass over or under the dual carriageway without an intersection. A dual carriageway with grade-separated junctions and which meets other requirements may be upgraded to motorway standard, denoted by an (M) added after the road number (e.g. " A1(M) " or " A38(M) "). Unlike in Ireland, there was no official terminology for 'high-quality dual carriageways' until April 2015, when in England
14385-418: The plan was cancelled. With its elevated roadway on concrete pylons flying above the streets below at rooftop height, the Westway provides a good example of how much of Ringway 1 would have appeared had it been constructed. The East Cross route was the only part to be built in its entirety and it includes a permanently unfinished junction at Hackney Wick with the proposed North Cross Route. Another relic of
14522-458: The protagonist couple in the song are "lost on the Westway", and the road is mentioned in two other songs by the band, " Fool's Day " and " Under the Westway ". Dirty Pretty Things refer to the Westway in the song "Truth Begins"; the opening lyrics are "The Westway walls so tall and bleak / Reflect the words we dare not speak". Local groups from the Ladbroke Grove scene, notably Hawkwind and
14659-479: The public what the Ringways would be like for local residents and what demolition would be required, and led to increased complaints over the scheme. The GLDP received 22,000 formal objections by 1972. The GLC realised that the South Cross Route might be impractical to build, and looked instead at integrating public transport through a new park-and-ride scheme at Lewisham that would serve a new Fleet line on
14796-453: The quality of intersecting junctions. The national speed limit applies on dual carriageways (unless it is in a ' built-up area ', or a lower limit is posted), which is as follows: A dual carriageway in a built up area will have a statutory speed limit of 30 mph (48 km/h) unless otherwise sign-posted. It is common for such urban dual carriageways to have an increased speed limit of 40 mph (64 km/h). A road deemed to be in
14933-456: The railway and passed through Hampstead in a cut-and-cover tunnel owing to local geography, and over British Rail 's goods depot at Camden Town , where there was to be an interchange with the proposed Camden Town bypass. It again followed the North London line to the north of St Pancras and King's Cross , then ran in a tunnel through Highbury , and crossed Kingsland High Street in Dalston on
15070-495: The railway line from Ringway 1 at Brixton and heading to Ringway 3. Like Ringway 2 this road was never built. Ringway 2 took another elevated route crossing the railway by Goat House Bridge, before running in a cutting by South Norwood and Thornton Heath . It then passed under the Brighton Main Line up to a major junction with the M23 coming north from Mitcham . This area would have required extensive demolition. Taking
15207-518: The remit of London County Council. The route was roughly based on the earlier "D" ring designed by Patrick Abercrombie . The southern section was never planned in detail, so a specific route does not exist. The section in west London was eventually built to a lower standard as the A312 . Ringway 3 was planned to link the capital's outer suburbs linking areas such as Croydon , Esher , Barnet , Waltham Cross , Chigwell and Dartford . Construction began on
15344-501: The rest of the Ringway schemes be abandoned. The project was submitted to the Conservative government for approval and, for a short period, it appeared that the GLC had made enough concessions for the scheme to proceed. A report around this time commissioned by planning lawyer Frank Layfield showed that the GLDP was too dependent on roads for its transport plans. Because the GLC had proposed
15481-606: The road in " London's Burning ", and the group's Joe Strummer described their music as "the sound of the Westway". The group's documentary Westway to the World is named after the road. Swiss post-punk group Chin Chin used the same turn of phrase for the title of their 1985 LP The Sound of the Westway. The cover for The Jam 's 1977 album This Is the Modern World was taken under the Westway. Blur 's 1993 song " For Tomorrow " mentions that
15618-503: The roads allow higher speed traffic than is common on other roads. This in turn requires them to have dual carriageways in most cases. An exception is the 2+1 road system in some rural areas; these roads are also referred to as expressways. Autobahnähnliche Straßen mostly are colloquially referred to as gelbe Autobahn (yellow motorway) because they have the same technical standard as the Autobahn but have black on yellow signs instead of
15755-431: The roundabout's north side were built for the connection of slip roads and the alignment of the slip roads between the West Cross Route and the roundabout avoided the planned line of the road to the north. The Westway was funded by the GLC with a 25% grant from central government. The main contractor was John Laing & Sons , while the flyovers at the eastern end were engineered by Sir Bruce White and Partners. The road
15892-515: The route was then planned to cross the ancient woodland of Oxleas Wood and the adjacent Shepheardleas Wood to connect to the "Rochester Way Relief Road" ( A2 ) at a junction at Falconwood . Heading south from the A2, Ringway 2 would have crossed Eltham Warren Golf Course and Royal Blackheath Golf Club to reach the A20 at Mottingham where its next junction would have been constructed. Next, heading west out of
16029-620: The routes were designed to follow the alignments of existing railway lines to minimise the amount of land required for construction, including the North London line in the north, the Greenwich Park branch line in the south, and the West London line to the west. Ringway 1 was expected to cost £480 million (£9.38 billion today) including £144 million (£2.74 billion today) for property purchases. It would require 1,048 acres (4.24 km ) and affect 7,585 houses. Only two parts of Ringway 1 were completed and opened to traffic. Part of
16166-403: The same class of road, except in cities and built-up areas where the dual carriageway is more of a safety measure. When first constructed, many dual carriageways—including the first motorways—had no crash- or other barriers in the central reservation. In the event of congestion, or if a driver missed their exit, some drivers made U-turns onto the opposite carriageway; many accidents were caused as
16303-531: The section in east London as the M15 , but this was not planned to refer to the entire road. Since the Ringways Plan was cancelled, most of the route has been upgraded, some of it close to motorway standard, but this has been done piecemeal. In places, the road is a six-lane dual carriageway with grade separated junctions, while other parts remain at a much lower standard. In some cases this has been because of protests;
16440-482: The sections and tightened to achieve the bearing capacity necessary to carry the weight of traffic. Joints between sections were minimised in order to provide a smoother journey. The road was designed with a main speed of 50 miles per hour (80 km/h) aside from the sliproads, which were designed for 30 miles per hour (48 km/h). All elevated sections of the road were designed to support HA loading plus 45 units of HB loading in any direction. Prince Charles visited
16577-513: The site of Grenfell Tower is visible to the south. With the extension westward of the London Congestion Charge Zone between 19 February 2007 and 4 January 2011, the part of the road between Westbourne Park and the Westway roundabout that passed through the zone was designated as a "free through route" that allowed vehicles to cross the zone without paying the charge. The Westway was built as an extension of Western Avenue to form
16714-646: The term "divided highway" is used for this type of road, and the segment between the roadways is referred to as a "median". There may be gaps in the median strip of a partially controlled-access road to allow turning and crossing. More informally, a divided highway may be referred to as "twinned". This stems from the practice of "twinning" an existing two-lane highway and converting it into a divided highway. Such highways in southern Ontario, southern Quebec, and parts of Atlantic Canada usually feature full controlled-access with interchanges where robust federal and provincial funding has made such freeways possible. However, due to
16851-414: The white on blue signs used on the Autobahn motorway network. These are generally high-speed arterial roads in larger cities or important roads within a federal state that do not connect to major cities, so that they do not fall under the federal budget for the Autobahn network. The federal road Bundesstraße 27 is an example where about half of its length is upgraded to a high speed motorway standard. On
16988-498: Was blocked at the north end and appropriated for the Westway scheme. Continuing westward, the Westway runs parallel with the Great Western Main Line , before turning south-west at Westbourne Park and crossing the railway to run immediately adjacent to London Underground 's Hammersmith & City line as far as Ladbroke Grove station . The road then returns to an east–west alignment to the elevated roundabout junction with
17125-510: Was cheaper to construct and required less land to be directly built on, and had worked well for previous road construction projects, such as elevated section of the M4 from Chiswick to Langley and the Five Ways interchange at Hendon . However, passing an eight lane elevated motorway through a densely populated area involved the clearance of a large number of buildings adjacent to the railway, particularly in
17262-587: Was hugely ambitious, and almost immediately attracted opposition from several directions. Ringway 1 was designed to be an eight-lane elevated motorway running through the middle of many town centres such as Camden Town , Brixton and Dalston . A principal problem was the route of Ringway 2 in south London, given that the South Circular Road was largely an unimproved series of urban streets and there were fewer railway lines to follow. Parts would be built with four lanes in each direction, and in some cases there
17399-569: Was jeered by protesters armed with placards. A group of squatters moved into vacant houses on Freston Road near to those demolished for the Westway, forming a so-called "independent state" of Frestonia . Residents on Acklam Road, which ran parallel to the Westway between Ladbroke Grove and Westbourne Park, draped a large banner across several houses reading "Get us out of this hell! Rehouse us now!" Locals complained about having to use Westbourne Terrace and Gloucester Terrace , both residential streets with several listed buildings, as access roads for
17536-421: Was never well planned and did not have an exact proposed alignment. The route of the eastern section of the North Circular Road south from its junction with the M11 at South Woodford to the junction with the A13 (the "South Woodford to Barking Relief Road" ) was built on the planned motorway alignment, opening in 1987. The section between South Woodford and Redbridge roundabout ( A12 junction) was, for
17673-414: Was no other plan than to destroy whatever urban streets were in the way of the new road. At Blackheath , the road would have run in a deep-bored tunnel to avoid any impact on the local area, at an estimated cost of £38 million. However, until around 1967, the opposition was more towards specific proposals instead of the concept of Ringways generally. The report Motorways in London , published in 1969 by
17810-524: Was one of the few major road schemes approved by the GLC after Labour took control in 1981. Ringway 4 was more commonly known by the names "North Orbital Road" and "South Orbital Road", and was first mentioned in Bressey's report. The southern section became part of the M25 and M26 from Wrotham Heath to Hunton Bridge . Sections of the A405 and A414 through Hertfordshire follow its proposed route. The road
17947-460: Was opened running 55 km (34 mi) from Milan to Varese . It featured a broad road bed and did not feature lane dividers except near cities and through the mountains. The London end of the Great West Road became Britain's first dual carriageway when it was opened in 1925 by King George V . In 1927 the Rome bypass was opened. It ran 92 km (57 mi) bypassing Rome to the east. Almost
18084-404: Was planned as a combination of motorway and all-purpose dual carriageway , connecting a number of towns around the capital including Tilbury , Epping , Hoddesdon , Hatfield , St Albans , Watford , Denham , Leatherhead and Sevenoaks . Despite its name, the route of Ringway 4 did not make a complete circuit of London. It was, instead, C-shaped. The planned route started at a junction with
18221-423: Was planned to support three lanes in each direction, but was upgraded to include hard shoulders in 1966. The route was chosen to follow the easiest path from Western Avenue to Paddington which paralleled existing railway lines. To the east, the GLC had purchased slums between Harrow Road and the Grand Union Canal for redevelopment, and the Westway was planned to run along the southern edge of this. An elevated road
18358-533: Was published by Penguin Books and sold 18,000 copies. Several key ideas in the report would later be perceived as being correct as road protesting grew from the 1980s onward. The London Traffic Survey was published the following year, and concluded that the Ringways should be built in order to cater for future network traffic, instead of Traffic in Towns which said if a road was not built, there would be no demand along that route anyway. The 1960s plans were developed over
18495-540: Was set in a junction between motorways, one of which is the Westway. In the novel, the protagonist has an accident on the road while speeding and is consequently stranded in waste ground between motorways with nobody able to help. The 1997 murder mystery A Certain Justice by P. D. James was set in an area being demolished for the Westway, referring to houses "rising in great choking clouds of ochre dust". Chris Petit 's 1979 road movie Radio On includes several shots of
18632-613: Was transferred from the Highways Agency to the Greater London Authority . In 2013, the Mayor of London , Boris Johnson , announced parts of the Westway would be reconstructed to allow a separated cycleway to be built on it. The space required would be provided by reducing vehicle capacity. These plans were abandoned in 2016. The Westway is referred to in J. G. Ballard 's 1973 novel Crash . The following year's Concrete Island
18769-411: Was under construction at the same time. This opened in 1976; the remaining sections of the southern Ringway 4 were constructed over the next ten years. While the construction of the first section was in progress, the plan for Ringways 3 and 4 was modified considerably. Broadly speaking, the motorway section of Ringway 4 was to be built and connected to the northern and eastern section of Ringway 3 (from
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