View east from Marsh Lane to Leeds-Liverpool Canal 1, 2 June 1997
View east from Marsh Lane to Leeds-Liverpool Canal (see all photos of the same view)
Marsh Lane is at the bottom of this picture and the canal is visible towards the top. In the distance, the motorway formation is essentially complete, with road markings in place; in the foreground a final course of tarmac is yet to be laid.
Structure 17 (Marsh Lane overbridge)
Structure 17a (Marsh Farm overbridge)
Structure 19 (Leeds-Liverpool Canal underbridge)
What's new
The road that made no sense
It was the UK's only single-carriageway motorway, and twenty years ago it ceased to exist. This is the story of the strange fascination it held, and of my place in history.
The forever bottleneck, part 2
The second part of the story, where we learn why exactly the M4 gets narrower on the final approach to Europe’s biggest city.
The forever bottleneck, part 1
The M4 into London was one of the UK's earliest and most ambitious motorway projects. It was bold, pioneering... and almost instantly regretted.
