M4 motorway
Template: Infobox trunk road / Maintenance / GB -M
Countries:
- England
- Wales
The M4 motorway (English for, motorway M4 ' ) is a motorway in Great Britain linking London with Wales. It is part of the non -marked European route 30 It starts in West London ( Chiswick ), important places on the route are Reading, Swindon, Bristol, Newport, Cardiff, Bridgend, Swansea and Llanelli. Originally, this highway was called " London - South Wales Motorway " and replaced on the English side of the old A- A4 road (London- Bristol).
History
A new road on the route London - South Wales was planned as one of the first projects in the postwar period in the 1950s by the British Ministry of Transport. Construction began with the ring road from Maidenhead (west of London ), which was opened in 1961 and carried before the opening of the number of A4 (M). In 1965, the London- Maidenhead was done, together with the already opened in 1959 in Chiswick High Road.
In the meantime, the construction in the area of Bristol to Newport had begun. The heart of this route is the Severn Bridge, which is now on the M48 Motorway; the connection points 18 (with Yate ) to 23 ( at Magor in Wales) were opened in late 1966. Further west, but was opened the first ever motorway in Wales earlier in 1966, the old A48 (M) in Port Talbot, which is part of the M4 today. In 1967, the bypass of Newport was completed, the West End was formerly planned at Tredegar Park as the end point of the M4; after the establishment of the Welsh Office in 1964, but plans for an extension were developed further to the west.
1971 were all missing routes in England, that is, the gap between Maidenhead and Yate, completed and extended with a few exceptions, the old bypasses to three lanes in each direction. In Wales, focused on the construction of various ring roads, starting with the bypass of Morriston in Swansea in 1972 (originally as the A48 (M) planned). 1977 were opened more great parts, including the Eastern Access of Cardiff, the routes Cardiff Bridgend, Pyle - Port Talbot and Morriston - Portarddulais. 1980 also followed bypasses Cardiff and Bridgend. Only the six -mile route between Port Talbot and Morriston was not realized due to the peat soil and navigable river Neath for many years. Only in 1994 the gap was closed.
The last change was in 1996 instead of the opening of the new cable-stayed bridge over the River Severn between England and Wales, the Second Severn Crossing. The old route was subsequently renamed M48.
2010 Expansion work was completed from four to six lanes on the bypass of Cardiff.
Others
1999, a bus lane has been established in a pilot project on a short section in London. 2010, the project was ended for the time being and restore the previous state. At the 2012 Olympics, the experiment was repeated but.
It was planned south of Newport to build a new highway called M4 Toll. As the name suggests, it should be the act similar to a private motorway Motorway M6 Toll at Birmingham. This new highway should relieve the M4 at Newport, particularly the bottleneck to the Brynglas tunnel, which can not be extended. The planned costs originally amounted to £ 350 million after a cost increase to £ 1 billion to the Welsh Assembly Government, 2009, however, decided to reject the project.