Gravelly Hill Interchange

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Gravelly Hill Interchange
Spaghetti Junction
Spaghetti-Junction-Crop.jpg
Gravelly Hill Interchange from the south east
Gravelly Hill Interchange
Location
Birmingham, England
Coordinates 52°30′40″N1°51′58″W / 52.511°N 1.866°W / 52.511; -1.866 Coordinates: 52°30′40″N1°51′58″W / 52.511°N 1.866°W / 52.511; -1.866
Roads at
junction
Construction
Type Free-flow interchange
Opened24 May 1972 (1972-05-24)
Maintained by Highways England
West Midlands UK location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Gravelly Hill
Location in the county of West Midlands
UK motorways map (pale lines).svg
Red pog.svg
Gravelly Hill
Location in UK motorway network

Gravelly Hill Interchange, also known as Spaghetti Junction, [1] is a famous junction in the UK. It is junction 6 of the M6 motorway where it meets the A38(M) Aston Expressway in the Gravelly Hill area of Birmingham, England. The interchange was opened on 24 May 1972. [2]

Contents

Background

The asymmetrical junction provides access to and from the A38 (Tyburn Road), A38(M) (Aston Expressway), the A5127 (Lichfield Road/Gravelly Hill), and several unclassified local roads. [3] [4] It covers 30 acres (12 ha), [5] serves 18 routes and includes 4 km (2.5 mi) of slip roads, but only 1 km (0.6 mi) of the M6 itself. Across five different levels, it has 559 concrete columns, reaching up to 24.4 m (80 ft). The engineers had to elevate 21.7 km (13.5 mi) of motorway to accommodate two railway lines, three canals and two rivers.

In 1958, the Ministry of Transport commissioned the engineering firm Sir Owen Williams & Partners to investigate possible routes to connect the M6, the A38(M) and the A38 trunk road. [6]

The interchange's colloquial name, "Spaghetti Junction", was coined in 1965 by journalists from the Birmingham Evening Mail . On 1 June 1965, reporter Roy Smith described plans for the then unbuilt junction as a "cross between a plate of spaghetti and an unsuccessful attempt at a Staffordshire knot" and sub-editor Alan Eaglesfield headlined the article "Spaghetti Junction". [5] [7] The name would later be given to other complex road junctions around the world. The student magazine of Birmingham City University, Spaghetti Junction, took its name from the interchange's nickname, before being rebranded as Polygon. [8]

Construction

The development of the interchange was approved and announced in August 1968 by the then Minister of Transport, Richard Marsh. Construction was expected to take three years and to cost £8m. [9] The work was led by chief engineer Roy Foot. [10] There were a number of objections and protests over the interchange, particularly a campaign to "save our fish" to relocate a quarter of a million fish from a pool that would be removed as part of the engineering work. [5] One stipulation in construction was that the canal towpaths running underneath the junction need to have sufficient clearance to allow horses. [10] Work was mostly complete by May 1970, and attracted attention of local residents. By the following September, several motorists were found to have been driving illegally along it, and children had found it a useful shortcut to school. In early 1972, Viking Motors ran a return service from Burton-on-Trent to the interchange for 65p return. [10]

The interchange at night, as seen from a police helicopter West Midlands Police Helicopter - Night Time Photos - Gravelly Hill Interchange.jpg
The interchange at night, as seen from a police helicopter

The junction was opened on 24 May 1972 by the then Secretary of State for the Environment, Peter Walker. [11] [12] The opening was delayed by several months because of "box girder inspections". [13] These followed the interim report of the Merrison Enquiry set up following the collapse of similar box girder bridges in Australia and Wales. [14] Birmingham City Council saw the junction as a potential opportunity to attract visitors to the city, and proposed a Grand Prix involving the interchange. [3]

The junction has undergone major repair work several times since, owing to the very heavy traffic through the junction and, allegedly, cost-saving measures during its construction. [15] In November 2007, a sliproad running from the Tyburn Road onto the Aston Expressway was closed to undergo urgent repair works. Upon inspection, it was found that Spaghetti Junction itself was in need of repair work because salt and grit had weakened the joints in the structure. [16] By 2009, it was estimated that 1¼ billion vehicles had travelled through the junction, and although structural defects had been found, the overall structure was stable enough to continue carrying traffic. [17]

South-east of the junction, the M6 is on the elevated Bromford Viaduct – the longest viaduct in the UK. [18]

Co-located junctions

The Cross City Line and Tame Valley Canal passing underneath the motorway complex Canal at Gravelly Hill Interchange - 2009-03-19.jpg
The Cross City Line and Tame Valley Canal passing underneath the motorway complex

Underneath the motorway junction are the meeting points of local roads, the river Tame's confluences with the River Rea and Hockley Brook, the Cross-City and Walsall railway lines and Salford Junction, where the Grand Union Canal, Birmingham and Fazeley Canal and Tame Valley Canal meet.

Cultural references

Gravelly Hill Interchange appears in the 1973 Cliff Richard musical film Take Me High , where he plays a banker living on a barge on Gas Street Basin. [10] Ken Dodd called the junction "the eighth wonder of the world", because "you get on and wonder how to get off". [3]

The National Lottery-based show Winning Lines featured a booby prize as a trip to Spaghetti Junction. [19]

In 2022, for the 50th anniversary of the opening of Spaghetti Junction, Heinz released a limited edition of their tinned spaghetti featuring the interchange on the tin. [20] [21]

See also

Related Research Articles

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A38(M) motorway Motorway in Great Britain

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Erdington is a suburb and ward of Birmingham that is historically part of Warwickshire. It is 4 miles (6 km) northeast of central Birmingham, England and borders Sutton Coldfield. It was also a council constituency, managed by its own district committee. The former council district consisted of the ward of Erdington, and Tyburn,, Stockland Green and Kingstanding, although all of Kingstanding and most of both Tyburn and Stockland Green wards lie outside the historical boundaries of Erdington. Stockland Green was formerly part of Aston, Kingstanding part of Perry Barr and Tyburn partially split between Aston and Hodge Hill. Erdington (ward) was part of the Sutton Coldfield constituency before 1974.

Perry Barr Human settlement in England

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Gravelly Hill

Gravelly Hill is an area of Birmingham, United Kingdom.

Spaghetti junction Intertwined road traffic interchange

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Birmingham Erdington (UK Parliament constituency) Parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom, 1974 onwards

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A5127 road

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Tame Valley Canal

The Tame Valley Canal is a relatively late (1844) canal in the West Midlands of England. It forms part of the Birmingham Canal Navigations. It takes its name from the roughly-parallel River Tame.

Salford Junction

Salford Junction is the canal junction of the Grand Union and Tame Valley Canals with the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal. It is in the north of the administrative city of Birmingham, England and historically marked a tripoint between two divisions of Aston to the south and Erdington to the north. It is directly east of most of the Gravelly Hill Interchange. With Aston and Bordesley Junctions it forms a circuit, at the heart of Birmingham's thirty-five miles of canals.

Bromford Human settlement in England

Bromford is an industrial and residential area of Birmingham, situated between Ward End, Alum Rock, Hodge Hill, Washwood Heath, Shard End, Stechford, Castle Bromwich and Tyburn. The industrial area is predominantly situated on the north side of the M6 motorway, including The Bromford Gate industrial park, Fort Shopping Park, and Fort Dunlop, with one industrial site sitting east of the M6 called Bromford Central. The residential area sits adjacent to the East of the M6 comprising two neighbourhoods, Bromford built along Bromford Drive, and The Firs built along Chipperfield Road. The industrial and residential areas have increasingly become two separate distinguishable places, and not recognised locally as joined or one. This is signified by the M6 & River Tame dividing the two areas, poor public transport links between the two areas, and the areas sitting within three different local authority wards, and two parliamentary constituencies (industrial area situated within Birmingham Erdington and residential area situated within Birmingham Hodge Hill.

Bromford Viaduct

The Bromford Viaduct carries the M6 motorway between Castle Bromwich and Gravelly Hill along the River Tame valley in Birmingham, England. This elevated stretch of motorway above the Tame itself is 3+1⁄2 miles long, which makes it the longest viaduct in Great Britain, being 1⁄4 mile longer than the Second Severn Crossing. It was constructed during the period 1964–1972.

References

  1. ↑ "London road junction 'scariest'". BBC News. 12 December 2007. Retrieved 4 May 2010.
  2. ↑ "Spaghetti Junction at 50: What lies beneath?". BBC News. Retrieved 23 May 2022.
  3. 1 2 3 Moran 2009, p. 47.
  4. ↑ "Spaghetti Junction, Birmingham, West Midlands". Historic England. Retrieved 24 April 2022.
  5. 1 2 3 Moran 2009, p. 45.
  6. ↑ "BBC - Legacies - Architectural Heritage - England - Birmingham - Dad, are we nearly there yet? - Article Page 1".
  7. ↑ Elkes, Neil (16 May 2012). "Birmingham Mail's role in creating Spaghetti Junction legend". Birmingham Mail. Birmingham. Archived from the original on 21 February 2013. Retrieved 22 June 2012.
  8. ↑ "Polygon". Birmingham City Students' Union. Retrieved 25 April 2022.
  9. ↑ "£20m Motorway links for Midlands". The Times. London. 20 August 1968. p. 2.
  10. 1 2 3 4 Moran 2009, p. 46.
  11. ↑ "Spaghetti Junction-the gateway to London". The Times. 25 May 1972. p. 2.
  12. ↑ "Forty facts for forty years of the Spaghetti Junction". ITV. 24 May 2012. Retrieved 24 April 2022.
  13. ↑ Charles Bulmer, ed. (19 February 1972). "On the road". Motor: 48.
  14. ↑ "M1 box-girder viaduct to be strengthened". The Times. 24 November 1971. p. 2.
  15. ↑ "The Motorway Archive; Midland Links Motorways". The Motorway Archive. Archived from the original on 26 January 2008. Retrieved 13 December 2007.
  16. ↑ "Urgent fix for Spaghetti Junction". BBC News. 1 December 2007. Retrieved 2 December 2007.
  17. ↑ Moran 2009, p. 50.
  18. ↑ "Five longest bridges in the United Kingdom". Thor Technology. Retrieved 24 April 2022.
  19. ↑ Moran 2009, p. 6.
  20. ↑ Leach, Harry (23 May 2022). "Scramble for tins of Heinz spaghetti to mark Spaghetti Junction's 50th birthday". Birmingham Mail . Retrieved 24 May 2022.
  21. ↑ "Heinz Limited Edition Spaghetti Junction". Heinz to Home. Retrieved 24 May 2022.
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