One of the most iconic roadways in the entire country – scratch that, the most iconic road in the entire country – turns 50 today. That’s 50 years of baffling some motorists, of frustrating others, of stories about what lies beneath but ultimately being one of the key routes of all of the countries journeys.
Officially opened on 24th May 1972 Gravelly Interchange, as it is officially known, was expected to take three years and cost £8m which remained quite on schedule (I mean in this day and age of modern technology it would run over by about three years and spiral into financial ruin before its completion) with the majority of work completed by 1970. Incidents with similar roads in Australia and elsewhere meant that before the road was opened there was an additional inspection needed to ensure it remained safe although it mustn’t have deterred many people at the time as it was identified people had been illegally using it before it was opened.
It has received maintenance in the fifty years since it opened, especially as salt and grit had damaged some of the structure combined with heavy traffic load (It’s estimated about 210,000 cars use the stretch every day) but it’s still expected to have a lifespan of at least 120 years. The route sits above canals (We’ve got more than Venice in case you were wondering) and plenty of greenery (We are the city with the most green space in Europe after all) along with fantastic works of graffiti from our cities thriving and undercelebrated graffiti scene.
Part of the proposal to build this road was that there would be enough room for horses to draw narrowboats underneath and that some of the local fish were moved to protect them. It was a feat of engineering brilliance (I mean we were the heart of the industrial revolution, what did they expect?) but perhaps some of the most intriguing stories relate to bodies buried beneath and within the roads. While there has been the occasional report of a body being found, urban legends will tell you that the entire structure is littered with them. Mainly as a result of gangs at the time making people disappear and the ongoing construction of such a huge structure became an ideal location to bury them. How much truth is in these stories is hotly contested of course but perhaps in the years to come Steven Knight will write something about it in the future.
The name spaghetti junction was coined in 1965 by the Birmingham Mail after the plans were compared to “a plate of spaghetti and an unsuccessful Staffordshire knot” and to this day it’s what most people probably know it as. Here’s to 50 years of joining Scotland to London in one continuous road.
lockthelocks 