M54 motorway

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M54 Motorway
Road of the United Kingdom
Length	23 miles (37 km)
Direction	East - West
Start	Essington
Primary destinations	Wolverhampton Telford Shrewsbury
End	Wellington
Construction dates	1975 - 1983
Motorways joined	M6 motorway
The M54 highlighted in dark blue within Great Britain. See also the more detailed map below.

The M54 is a 23 mile (37km) east-west motorway in the English counties of Shropshire and Staffordshire. It is also referred to as the Telford Motorway, after the road's primary westbound destination, the new town of Telford.^[1] The motorway cost £65 million to construct, and is two-lane dual carriageway for the majority of its length, with sections of three-lane.^[2]

The M54 spur connects the M6 motorway near Essington, Staffordshire with the A5 trunk road at Wellington, Shropshire.^[3] The motorway forms part of the strategic route to North Wales, roughly following the path of the Roman Watling Street and the A5 north-westwards, towards the port of Holyhead.^[4] It is the only motorway in Shropshire, and forms a vital part of the county's road network.^[5]

[edit] History

[edit] Planning

The idea of the M54 was originally presented due to the high volumes of traffic on two smaller, parallel routes; the A5, the Roman Watling Street, which connected Rochester, Kent with Wroxeter, Shropshire, and the London to Holyhead road (now parts of A5, A45, A41 and A464), which was largely constructed by civil engineer Thomas Telford in the early 19th century. The initial plan for a motorway following the M54's present route was therefore designed to alleviate the roads which handled the commercial traffic to the port of Holyhead, destined for Ireland.^[1] With the proposal for a new town in the Telford area, then named Dawley New Town, the M54 was becoming more likely to be built; the government also wanted to increase transport provision to the rest of Shropshire, and provide an overspill housing area for the West Midlands conurbation.^[1]

A view of the eastbound carriageway at central Telford.

In 1967 the Ministry of Transport invited construction company Freeman Fox, Wilbur Smith Associates (FFWSA) to investigate and report on the impact of the New Town proposals on traffic demand between the proposed New Town site and Wolverhampton, and the best highway solution to meet this demand. The predicted demand was that of 75,000 vehicles per day by 1990 and a need for a dual 3-lane motorway. Two corridors were identified for a possible new motorway route, and a third option to possibly upgrade existing roads. The route could have followed the A5 Corridor to the M6 South of Gailey, at Junction 12, or a new corridor could have been established to the M6, north-east of Featherstone, at Junction 11. Additionally, it was proposed that the existing A5 could be upgraded to full dual carriageway grade separated standards together with improvements to the A41 and A464 trunk routes. ^[1]

[edit] The Wellington bypass

The first section of the M54 was opened in 1975, then named the A5 Wellington bypass, but later renumbered the M54 once Telford New Town was established in 1969. The bypass removed traffic from the heavily congested route through the urbanised areas of Oakengates and Wellington, and removed one of the country's most notorious bottlenecks at the Bucks Head crossroads, in Wellington; delays of up to six hours could be experienced in the summer months.^[1]

[edit] Construction

The Donnington section was the first section of the motorway to be completed. Telford Central (J5) shown here.

The Wellington bypass was constructed by contractor M. J. Gleeson Ltd, from 1973 to 1975. Many problems followed in the two years after completion; the rigid concrete carriageway broke up, due to the road being built on a poor subbase with rigid concrete along a historically heavily mined route. The aesthetic and constructional design of the bridges was also heavily criticised. Over the next 15 years, almost all of the original carriageway had to be replaced with asphalt.^[1]

The 30 kilometres (19 mi) section between the junction with the M6, and Telford, excluding the Wellington bypass, was divided into four contracts each awarded to different companies; all sections remained under the design of Sir Owen Williams and Partners.^[1]

• Contract 1 (Shifnal) was given to A Monk & Co., who utilised a slip-form paver to construct the concrete section, which led to it becoming a standard in future motorway construction. ^[1]
• Contract 2 (Donnington) was awarded to R M Douglas Construction Ltd. The two year contract was completed in only 18 months, due to the dry weather which allowed the earthworks to be completed ahead of schedule. ^[1]
• Contract 3 (Codsall) was taken by Alfred McAlpine & Son (Southern) Ltd., and was constructed almost identically to contract 1. ^[1]
• Contract 4 (Essington) was the largest contract, and was awarded to Tarmac Construction (present day Carillion plc). This section took the longest to complete, and faced opposition from Staffordshire County Council who wanted disruption at the junction with the M6 to remain minimal. ^[1]

The Forge junction at Telford Town Centre was awarded relatively late, to the company Norwest Holst. The junction precipitated the construction of Telford Shopping Centre, and the central commercial area, as the exchange was upgraded to allow traffic from the motorway to join and exit in both directions. ^[1] The Forge to Cluddley section, from Junction 5 to Junction 7, opened to traffic in December 1975. The Hilton Park to Forge section, from the M6 to Junction 5, opened in November 1983. ^[6] The motorway cost 65 million pounds to build,^[2] which when adjusted for inflation would come to approximately 150 million 2006 GBP.^[7]

[edit] Impact

A view of the M54 as it traverses rural Shropshire near Wellington. The camouflaging soil banks and rows of vegetation can just be seen, lining the carriageway to reduce noise pollution and carriageway visibility from ground level.

See also: The Economy of Telford

To help alleviate opposition to the intrusive motorway design, the 60 feet (18 m) wide carriageway was built to pass below the natural landscape, where possible. Man-made hills were constructed which, along with the planting of 250,000 new trees, helped to camouflage the motorway from view, and cut down on the noise level. This aesthetic improvement project took two and a half years to complete and employed over 100 men. ^[5]

The construction of the motorway has been attributed to stronger economic growth and lower unemployment in the Telford area; unemployment in the 1980s was at over 20%, by 2004 this figure had fallen to 3.3%.^[5] The motorway allowed Telford to develop significant distribution centres by providing the town with access to the wider motorway network, and industrial estates such as Hortonwood and Stafford Park have contributed to the towns relatively low unemployment level.^[8]

Some of the highest pollution levels in the borough of Telford and Wrekin are along the M54, particularly between junctions 5 and 7, which run through Telford's urban area.^[9]

[edit] Route

A map showing the M54 (dark blue) in relation to other motorways (light blue), shown within the ceremonial counties of Shropshire, Staffordshire and West Midlands. Area highlighted within UK on the left.

The road runs west from Junction 10A of the M6 motorway near Essington, Staffordshire (Map). It passes south of Featherstone near Junction 1 and then north of Bushbury before reaching Junction 2. Just before Junction 3 with Albrighton the road enters Shropshire. It then passes to the north of Shifnal. Between Junction 4 and Junction 5, the road passes across the Wolverhampton to Shrewsbury railway line through the centre of Telford. Between Junctions 6 and 7, the road runs around the south of Wellington before ending on the A5 (Map), which continues on to Shrewsbury as dual carriageway.^[3]

Telford Motorway Service Station was opened in 2004 off Junction 4, and is operated by Welcome Break.^[10] It is the only service station on the motorway and, if travelling east, the last before Corley on the M6 or Frankley on the M5.^[11]

[edit] Future plans

There are proposals to add a link road to the M6 Toll^[12] which meets the M6 at Junction 11a, whereas the M54 meets the M6 at Junction 10a, missing the toll by one junction. Eastbound traffic approaching the M6 from the motorway can only travel southbound towards Birmingham, and not northbound towards Stafford; and vice versa, traffic coming from the north cannot join the M54 directly from the M6, as J10a has limited access.^[3] Therefore, traffic destined for the M6 Toll has to travel on local A roads to make the journey.^[13] Traffic heading south east along the M54 is advised to use the M6 Toll at peak times and Sunday evenings and is directed along the A449. Drivers can also choose to take a shorter route from Junction 1 onto the A460 northbound, crossing the M6 at J11, then turning left onto the M6 Toll, although this route is usually congested.^[14] In 2006, Macquarie Infrastructure Group (who own the M6 Toll and Midland Expressway, ltd.) announced a refinancing package for the M6 Toll, which includes £112m of investment in a link to the M54 in order to boost traffic levels.^[15]

[edit] Junctions and destinations

[edit] See also

The view from Staffordshire Way, which passes over the M54 near Codsall.

• List of motorways in the United Kingdom

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• CBRD Motorway Database - M54
• The Motorway Archive - M54

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