M45 motorway

UK motorway routebox
motorway= M45
length-mi= 8
length-km= 12.9
direction= East - West
start= Watford Gap
destinations= Rugby
Coventry
end= Thurlaston
opening-date= 1959
completion-date= entire motorway
junctions=

The M45 is a motorway in Warwickshire, England and is 8 miles (12.9km) long. It runs from Junction 17 of the M1 motorway south east of Rugby and ends with a junction with the A45 road southwest of Rugby. It is one of the least busy parts of the United Kingdom motorway system.

History

Built in 1959 when the M1 (as part of a link from London to Birmingham) went as far as Junction 18, the M45 was designed to dissipate some of the motorway traffic before the M1 terminated [ [http://www.iht.org/motorway/m1m10m45.htm The Motorway Archive Scheme Page] ] . Its equivalent at the southern end of the M1 is the M10.

As the signposted route to Birmingham in the 1960s it was one of the busiest roads in Britain. However in 1972, the opening of the M6 provided a much faster route through to the West Midlands from London. Most traffic diverted to this route, leaving the M45 with only a fraction of its previous traffic.

A limited-access junction (Eastbound exit and Westbound entry) was added in September 1991 [ [http://www.pathetic.org.uk/current/m45/ Pathetic Motorways - M45] ] around two-thirds of the way along from the M1, near Dunchurch. Apart from this, the motorway is very much in its 'as-built' condition. Like all motorways, it has received a crash barrier along the central reservation, but it is noticeably free of the plethora of large signs and gantries added to more heavily used motorways during the 1970s/80s. It also has some of the few remaining 1950s-era concrete over-bridges. These were the standard design for early motorways, but were usually replaced or modified in the 1970s.

Junctions

ee also

* List of motorways in the United Kingdom
* Onley (lost settlement)

Notes

External links

*CBRD:
** [http://www.cbrd.co.uk/motorway/m45/ Motorway Database - M45]
** [http://www.cbrd.co.uk/media/video/m45.shtml Video - M45]
* [http://pathetic.org.uk/current/m45/ Pathetic Motorways - M45]
* [http://www.iht.org/motorway/m1m10m45.htm The Motorway Archive - M1/M10/M45]
* [http://www.rural-roads.co.uk/m45/m45_1.shtml Rural Roads - M45 article]