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Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

@roads.org.uk

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We write about UK road infrastructure and history! Join us for updates and other stuff from the UK's favourite roads website, www.roads.org.uk

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Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @roads.org.uk · Jun 18

Just published: two more historic commemorative books are now online from the opening of Eastern Avenue in 1925 and the M40 in 1991, adding to our growing collection of Opening Booklets. Explore two very different eras of roadbuilding history! #m40 #easternavenue www.roads.org.uk/blog/grand-o...

Grand openings

Our much-loved Opening Booklets section has two new publications for you to explore, and we’re making some overdue changes to make them easier to find and easier to read.

www.roads.org.uk

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Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @roads.org.uk · 3h

You can catch a train to France if you want, but back in the 80s there were hopes you'd be able to drive there too. Meet EuroRoute, the unbelievable plan for a road across the Channel via bridges, a tunnel and two artificial islands. www.roads.org.uk/articles/eur...

Artist's rendering of a long cable stayed bridge stretching away into the distance over a choppy sea with a yellow sailing boat in the foreground and a cargo ship away on the horizon

Artist's rendering of an artificial island, shown as a cut-away so the interior is visible. A cable stayed bridge carries a road onto the island which spirals down underground, while buildings and a marina are visible around the edges

Diagram showing a small part of the Kent coast with Dover visible; projecting out across the Channel are two lines, one representing a rail tunnel and the other a long road bridge to an island and a tunnel on from there

Sketch of an artificial island, with a cable stayed bridge leading to it, which has a large marina surrounded by hotels and casinos

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Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @roads.org.uk · 14h

But *apart* from that, 10/10

Reposted by Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

Bryn Buck 🏳️‍🌈💛🤍💜🖤 @showmeasign.online · 1d

*Thunderbirds theme intensifies*

The Pennine Tower on a grey day. A bridge spans the M6 in front of it.

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Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @roads.org.uk · 1d

Once it’s there, it’s there forever! That’s a shame - inevitable, I suppose, since nearly 30 years have passed, but sad to see some visible history is gone.

Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @roads.org.uk · 1d

The M48 is an oxbow lake of motorway, a little piece left behind when the M4 shifted its course. But it's hard to write it off when it's home to the Severn and Wye Bridges, some of the finest engineering on the UK network. #severnbridge www.roads.org.uk/motorway/m48

M48

The M48 crosses the River Severn alongside the M4 on the original Severn Bridge, carrying local and commuter traffic and forming a diversion route in the event that the Second Severn Crossing is…

www.roads.org.uk

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Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @roads.org.uk · 1d

Rare (and incorrect) use of a lane designation arrow to point to the side 👀

Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @roads.org.uk · 1d

That’s very kind but please don’t worry too much if it never turns up! I’m sure I’ll find myself in Haslemere before too long.

Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @roads.org.uk · 2d

I’m not far away from there, I might call in and see. Thank you!

Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @roads.org.uk · 2d

Very nice! I didn’t know there was one.

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Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @roads.org.uk · 2d

The missing link in the A3 between London and Portsmouth was a twisting road through a protected National Trust landscape, and fixing it required digging the huge Hindhead Tunnel to bury an expressway out of sight. We paid a visit on opening day back in 2010. #hindhead #a3 youtu.be/3-ZgtzQP8fo

The tunnel that saved a nature reserve

A journey through the A3 Hindhead Tunnel, one day after opening, in real time. Filmed on 28 July 2011, there are still roadworks at the northern end, and traffic coming the other way is still using…

youtu.be

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Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @roads.org.uk · 3d

Just published: there's been a lot of flags appearing on roads lately, but not this kind. Why is Reform-led Kent County Council putting EU flags on its road signs? #kent www.roads.org.uk/blog/red-whi...

Red, white and blue

Kent County Council is run by eurosceptic nationalists. So why are they putting EU flags on their road signs?

www.roads.org.uk

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Reposted by Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

Stephen Gower @sjgower.bsky.social · 4d

I made an infographic map. Oxford's Congestion Charge scheme (from 29th Oct) is not like most congestion charge schemes, because you can get to most streets in the city without being charged. My impression is a lot of people haven't realised this.

A street map of Oxford.

Woodstock Road, Banbury Road and the streets in their immediate vicinity are coloured pink. Botley Road and streets off it are coloured green. Cowley Road, Iffley Road and Abingdon Road and streets off them are coloured blue. Streets in Marston and Headington are coloured orange. The ring road matches the colours at each junction and fades between colours as it goes around. A small area in the middle is coloured yellow, and labelled "Central Permit Area". THe Congestion Charge traffic filters are indicated by black circles circles with white segments, those white segments correspond on a 24 hour clock face with when the filter isn't operational (and the remaining black, when the filters are operational). Crosses mark other filters in the city that are enforced by ANPR but are not part of the Congestion Charge scheme.

Text at the top of the image reads "Temporary Congestion Charge for Cars in Oxford 2025-2026. Any road outside the Central Permit Area can be accessed without passing any traffic filers by using the Ring Road and selecting an approporiate exit junction (matching colours on this map)."

A key at the bottom matches the filter types, with text "Traffic Filters. Hollow Way & Marston Ferry Road 7-9am and 3-6pm. St Cross Road, Hythe Bridge Street, Thames Street and St Clements, 7am-7pm. £5 daily permit covers all Congestion Charge filters. Free Permits available. For example for residents, business use, health and car, SEND and disabilty. Congestion Charge permits do not apply for other filters, such as High Street or in East Oxford/Cowley."

Small print reads "Full details at https://www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/transport-and-travel" and "©@sjgower Contains OpenStreetMap data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Locations of highway filters are approximate and for overview purposes only. v1.3"

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Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @roads.org.uk · 4d

The DfT do not have an unblemished record of managing big projects. What on earth are they doing? It’s awaiting funding so it can start. If they want it to happen they need to find the money for it, not new management. Madness.

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Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @roads.org.uk · 4d

We've got a soft spot for the tiny M49. It's one of the oddest motorways - for years it had no junctions, and now it has one junction which leads nowhere at all. What's the story behind the ghost interchange at Avonmouth? #m49 #bristol
www.roads.org.uk/blog/ghost-j...
www.roads.org.uk/motorway/m49

A blue sign reading "SOUTH WALES, London, M49" points down an empty sliproad towards a motorway

A white van passes from left to right under a new-looking bridge with concrete supports and green painted metal beams

A sign reading "M49, M4, M5" points towards a clearly unfinished road that ends in a pile of rubble and temporary barriers just a few metres away

A blue sign reading "M49" is seen against a grey sky at the top of an almost vertical grassy embankment

Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @roads.org.uk · 5d

It's the motorway that time forgot. Long since bypassed and littered with original features from 1959, the M45 is a living museum - and if you want to take a look you'll probably have it all to yourself. www.roads.org.uk/motorway/m45

M45

The M45 is a spur from the M1 in Northamptonshire, westward towards Coventry. Today it just provides access to part of Coventry from one direction on the M1, but its historical significance is much…

www.roads.org.uk

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Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @roads.org.uk · 6d

What do the cryptic numbers and letters posted along English trunk roads mean? They're Driver Location Signs, and they'll come to your aid if you ever need to call for help. www.roads.org.uk/articles/dri...

Driver Location Signs

If you're on the motorway (in England at least) you might have noticed some funny blue signs down the side of the road. What are they for?

www.roads.org.uk

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Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @roads.org.uk · 6d

That’s nice to see! I have a pet theory that length was meant to replace the old road with a new single carriageway, it’s laid out as a single road with cycle tracks either side. Then someone decided to keep the old road open and make it dual, which is why the cycle track makes no sense.

Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @roads.org.uk · 6d

I think when it was first proposed Boris Johnson, then still the Mayor, had just returned from Boston with a head full of tunnel ideas. There were others too, all now thankfully forgotten.

Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @roads.org.uk · 7d

Probably for the best!

Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @roads.org.uk · 7d

You’ve also got the skew crossing of the underground lines, which the flyover manages quite elegantly but would be a nightmare to tunnel under, especially if it was C&C. It’s sheer fantasy. If you had megabucks for a big project in West London (and nobody has), you could do so much better than this.

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Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @roads.org.uk · 7d

Oh man, I thought that had gone for good. How on earth are they still talking about it? If you remove the flyover you gain almost no usable land - certainly not enough to make a tunnel affordable. Council policy set by click bait headline.

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Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @roads.org.uk · 7d

Back in the 1930s it was easier to go around things than shift too much earth. That's why the A24 takes such a snaking course along the Mole Valley near Mickleham, making one of the UK's most hair-raising dual carriageways. #surrey www.roads.org.uk/photo/mickle...

Photograph of a car travelling around a sharp left-hand bend with several yellow-bordered chevron signs marking the turn

Photograph of a sharp corner on a dual carriageway, with one lane painted out with white stripes and the other carriageway visible in the distance through the trees

A sharp corner on a dual carriageway, with an electronic warning sign in the foreground lit up to show a 50mph speed limit and a speed camera symbol

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Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @roads.org.uk · 8d

Manchester City Council have lowered the speed limit on the Mancunian Way to 30mph. Or at least they say they have - but creating a 30 limit on a motorway is, legally, almost impossible. So what is the speed limit now? #manchester www.roads.org.uk/blog/schrodi...

Schrödinger’s speed limit

In 2022, Manchester City Council say they reduced the speed limit on the Mancunian Way to 30mph. But it’s not clear if they did. It’s not even clear if they can.

www.roads.org.uk

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Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @roads.org.uk · 9d

Today it's the UK's busiest motorway, but its designers had no idea the monster they were creating. How did we end up with the western side of the M25? Discover its origins in the difficult history of the North Orbital Road. #m25 www.roads.org.uk/ringways/rin...

Ringway 4 Western Section

Its planners did not suspect that this length of orbital motorway would one day be the busiest in the UK. In fact, if there's anything wrong with it, it's that it's a bit too useful.

www.roads.org.uk

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Roads.org.uk 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ @roads.org.uk · 9d

That was part of a DTp trial of local direction (blue bordered) signs on urban motorways - Leeds and Glasgow were the trial sites. I don’t think it was ever taken further but the trial signs hung around for years.