Chronology Maps

1988 1989 1990

Click a section name to see full details and a map.

Completed Route Name Start End Original number
M60 Portwood - Denton J24 Denton J27 Portwood M63, M66
M40 Longbridge - Umberslade J15 Longbridge M42 J3A Umberslade

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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.

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EuroRoute

Today you can catch a train to France. You can even put your car on it, and be there in less than an hour. But in the 1980s, Euro Tunnel had competition - including plans to build a motorway across the English Channel.