2016-03-18

[Reposted] The Motorway Archive: M4. Chiswick to Slough By-pass

Link to the 'Motorway Archive'
(picture from 'Chiswick to Langley Special Road' section)

"The Chiswick Flyover [a photo is on the web site] was the first major two-level highway scheme to be carried out in the Metropolitan Area since World War II. The works extended for about half a mile and included a through road to link London's 'new' western approach, the Cromwell Road Extension, to the Great West Road without interference from cross-traffic.

"This through road was carried over a new 400ft diameter roundabout with a 40ft wide carriageway at the junction of the North Circular Road, Chiswick High Road, the road to Kew Bridge and the Great West Road. Traffic was distributed to these roads by means of four slip roads joining the roundabout at ground level. The junction was used by at least 40,000 vehicles a day and was seriously congested at times. The scheme removed a potential bottleneck at the western end of the Cromwell Road Extension."


What is the Motorway Archive?

"Work on developing the UK Motorway system, which transformed British travel, started in the mid-1950s. The Motorway Archive celebrates the engineering achievement involved in the conception, planning, design and construction of this transport network by thousands of dedicated professionals.

"The Archive itself is a collection of as many of the documents and artefacts, which were associated with the development, as it has been possible to find. From this wealth of material has come the story of each motorway developed in Britain over the last 50 years."

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