In the field of road transport , an interchange (American English) or a grade-separated junction (British English) is a road junction that uses grade separations to allow for the movement of traffic between two or more roadways or highways , using a system of interconnecting roadways to permit traffic on at least one of the routes to pass through the junction without interruption from crossing traffic streams. It differs from a standard intersection , where roads cross at grade . Interchanges are almost always used when at least one road is a controlled-access highway (freeway) or a limited-access highway (expressway), though they are sometimes used at junctions between surface streets.
52-541: Brent Cross is a major traffic interchange and area in the London Borough of Barnet , England. Originally the name of a crossroads, it is located a mile from the centres of Hendon and Golders Green . Notably, the Brent Cross Shopping Centre , a major retail facility, was opened in 1976, south of the interchange. The "Brent Cross Flyover" A41 runs to the east of the shopping centre over
104-735: A four-leaf clover . A cloverleaf is the minimum interchange required for a four-legged system interchange. Although they were commonplace until the 1970s, most highway departments and ministries have sought to rebuild them into more efficient and safer designs. The cloverleaf interchange was invented by Maryland engineer Arthur Hale, who filed a patent for its design on May 24, 1915. The first one in North America opened on December 15, 1929, in Woodbridge, New Jersey, connecting New Jersey Route 25 and Route 4 (now U.S. Route 1/9 and New Jersey Route 35). It
156-407: A teardrop shape, with the points facing towards the center of the interchange. Longer ramps are often required due to line-of-sight requirements at roundabouts. A partial cloverleaf interchange (often shortened to the portmanteau, parclo ) is an interchange with loops ramps in one to three quadrants, and diamond interchange ramps in any number of quadrants. The various configurations are generally
208-399: A complex appearance and are often colloquially described as Mixing Bowls , Mixmasters (for a Sunbeam Products brand of electric kitchen mixers ), or as Spaghetti Bowls or Spaghetti Junctions (being compared to boiled spaghetti ). However, they consume a significantly smaller area of land compared to a cloverleaf interchange. A combination interchange (sometimes referred to by
260-475: A directional T interchange) is typically used when a three-way interchange is required for two or three highways interchanging in semi-parallel/perpendicular directions, but it can also be used in right-angle case as well. Their connecting ramps can spur from either the right or left side of the highway, depending on the direction of travel and the angle. Directional T interchanges use flyover/underpass ramps for both connecting and mainline segments, and they require
312-412: A dumbbell interchange or a dogbone interchange, is similar to the diamond interchange, but uses a pair of roundabouts in place of intersections to join the highway ramps with the crossroad. This typically increases the efficiency of the interchange when compared to a diamond, but is only ideal in light traffic conditions. In the dogbone variation, the roundabouts do not form a complete circle, instead having
364-667: A moderate amount of land and moderate costs since only two levels of roadway are typically used. Their name derives from their resemblance to the capital letter T, depending upon the angle from which the interchange is seen and the alignment of the roads that are interchanging. It is sometimes known as the "New England Y", as this design is often seen in the northeastern United States, particularly in Connecticut. This type of interchange features directional ramps (no loops, or weaving right to turn left) and can use multilane ramps in comparatively little space. Some designs have two ramps and
416-454: A parclo AB features a loop ramp approaching the crossroad in one direction, and beyond the crossroad in the opposing direction, as in the example image. A diverging diamond interchange (DDI) or double crossover diamond interchange (DCD) is similar to a traditional diamond interchange, except the opposing lanes on the crossroad cross each other twice, once on each side of the highway. This allows all highway entrances and exits to avoid crossing
468-439: A safer modification of the cloverleaf design, due to a partial or complete reduction in weaving, but may require traffic lights on the lesser-travelled crossroad. Depending on the number of ramps used, they take up a moderate to large amount of land, and have varying capacity and efficiency. Parclo configurations are given names based on the location of and number of quadrants with ramps. The letter A denotes that, for traffic on
520-543: A small angle and meet the non-freeway at almost right angles. These ramps at the non-freeway can be controlled through stop signs , traffic signals , or turn ramps. Diamond interchanges are much more economical in use of materials and land than other interchange designs, as the junction does not normally require more than one bridge to be constructed. However, their capacity is lower than other interchanges and when traffic volumes are high they can easily become congested. A double roundabout diamond interchange, also known as
572-401: A three-level semi-directional T at Highway 407 and a two-level semi-directional T at Highway 401 . Service interchanges are used between a controlled-access route and a crossroad that is not controlled-access. A full cloverleaf may be used as a system or a service interchange. A diamond interchange is an interchange involving four ramps where they enter and leave the freeway at
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#1732772718073624-509: A three-way interchange. However, in a semi-directional T, some of the splits and merges are switched to avoid ramps to and from the passing lane , eliminating the major disadvantage of the directional T. Semi-directional T interchanges are generally safe and efficient, though they do require more land and are costlier than trumpet interchanges. Semi-directional T interchanges are built as two- or three-level junctions, with three-level interchanges typically used in urban or suburban areas where land
676-442: A toll road meets another toll road or a free highway. They are also useful when most traffic on the terminating highway is going in the same direction. The turn that is used less often would contain the slower loop ramp. Trumpet interchanges are often used instead of directional or semi-directional T or Y interchanges because they require less bridge construction but still eliminate weaving. A full Y-interchange (also known as
728-422: A traditional stack interchange. A three-level roundabout interchange features a grade-separated roundabout which handles traffic exchanging between highways. The ramps of the interchanging highways meet at a roundabout , or rotary, on a separated level above, below, or in the middle of the two highways. These interchanges can also be used to make a "linking road" to the destination for a service interchange, or
780-446: Is a 3-level stack, since the semi-directional ramps are spaced out far enough, so they do not need to cross each other at a single point as in a conventional 4-level stack. Stacks are significantly more expensive than other four-way interchanges are due to the design of the four levels; additionally, they may suffer from objections of local residents because of their height and high visual impact. Large stacks with multiple levels may have
832-428: Is an alternative four-way directional interchange. The turbine interchange requires fewer levels (usually two or three) while retaining directional ramps throughout. It features right-exit, left-turning ramps that sweep around the center of the interchange in a clockwise spiral . A full turbine interchange features a minimum of 18 overpasses, and requires more land to construct than a four-level stack interchange; however,
884-477: Is braided when at least one of the roadways reverses sides. It seeks to make left and right turns equally easy. In a pure braided interchange, each roadway has one right exit, one left exit, one right on-ramp, and one left on-ramp, and both roadways are flipped. The first pure braided interchange was built in Baltimore at Interstate 95 at Interstate 695 ; however, the interchange was reconfigured in 2008 to
936-470: Is more expensive. In a three-level semi-directional T, the two semi-directional ramps from the terminating highway cross the surviving highway at or near a single point, which requires both an overpass and underpass. In a two-level semi-directional T, the two semi-directional ramps from the terminating highway cross each other at a different point than the surviving highway, necessitating longer ramps and often one ramp having two overpasses. Highway 412 has
988-778: The A406 North Circular Road , while the M1 motorway and A5 Edgware Road are to the west at Staples Corner interchange. In addition, the Northern line (Edgware branch) and Thameslink rail routes run on viaducts. The River Brent passes through the area, flowing from east to west in a man-made channel. The Shopping Centre falls within the NW4 postcode district; the Brent South Retail Park falls within NW2; and
1040-599: The Golders Green area of north west London. The station is a Grade II listed building . The station is on the Edgware branch of the Northern line , between Hendon Central and Golders Green stations, and in Travelcard Zone 3 . The Brent Cross shopping centre is equidistant between this station and Hendon Central station. The station was designed by architect Stanley Heaps and opened as Brent ,
1092-400: The controlled-access highway , the loop ramps are located in advance of (or approaching ) the crossroad, and thus provide an onramp to the highway. The letter B indicated that the loop ramps are beyond the crossroad, and thus provide an offramp from the highway. These letters can be used together when opposite directions of travel on the controlled-access highway are not symmetrical, thus
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#17327727180731144-403: The "inside" through road (on the same side as the freeway that ends) crossing each other at a three-level bridge. The directional T interchange is preferred to a trumpet interchange because a trumpet requires a loop ramp by which speeds can be reduced, but flyover ramps can handle much faster speeds. The disadvantage of the directional T is that traffic from the terminating road enters and leaves on
1196-543: The 10 to 15-minute walks are through "a hostile pedestrian environment.". Transport schemes have been proposed involving Brent Cross, as part of, or concurrent to, the Brent Cross Cricklewood development. These include measures promoted by the Brent Cross Cricklewood developers but the subjects of objections to their planning application, including Interchange (road) Note: The descriptions of interchanges apply to countries where vehicles drive on
1248-736: The Brent Cross tube station is within NW11. "Brent Cross" was originally the name of a crossroads in the vicinity of the current Brent Cross Flyover. By 1944, the term was being used to describe addresses north of the A406 North Circular Road and west of the A41 Hendon Way and after the eponymous shopping centre was built it was also used to describe business addresses south of the North Circular. Previously
1300-548: The United States opened on July 7, 2009, in Springfield, Missouri , at the junction of Interstate 44 and Missouri Route 13 . A single-point urban interchange (SPUI) or single-point diamond interchange (SPDI) is a modification of a diamond interchange in which all four ramps to and from a controlled-access highway converge at a single, three-phase traffic light in the middle of an overpass or underpass. While
1352-574: The area had been known as Renters Farm, a name dating from 1309, and it remained largely farmland until the nineteenth century. In the late nineteenth century a sewage works was built there and Hendon Greyhound Stadium stood there from 1935 to 1972. In 1976 the Brent Cross Shopping Centre was opened, the first stand-alone shopping centre to be built in the United Kingdom. In the 1920s and 1930s, two major roads through
1404-591: The area were constructed, the east–west A406 North Circular Road and the north–south A41 Hendon Way. In 1923 the Northern line (Edgware branch) was extended on a short viaduct over the River Brent. In 1964–1965 the Brent Cross Flyover was built to carry the Hendon Way over the North Circular. During its construction, a fatal accident occurred on 20 June 1964 while erecting a large crane at
1456-401: The bridges are generally short in length. Coupled with reduced maintenance costs, a turbine interchange is a less costly alternative to a stack. A windmill interchange is similar to a turbine interchange, but it has much sharper turns, reducing its size and capacity. The interchange is named for its similar overhead appearance to the blades of a windmill . A variation of the windmill, called
1508-507: The compact design is safer, more efficient, and offers increased capacity—with three light phases as opposed to four in a traditional diamond, and two left turn queues on the arterial road instead of four—the significantly wider overpass or underpass structure makes them more costly than most service interchanges. Since single-point urban interchanges can exist in rural areas, such as the interchange of U.S. Route 23 with M-59 in Michigan ;
1560-537: The creation of a new basic road as a service interchange. Trumpet interchanges may be used where one highway terminates at another highway, and are named as such for to their resemblance to trumpets . They are sometimes called jug handles . These interchanges are very common on toll roads , as they concentrate all entering and exiting traffic into a single stretch of roadway, where toll plazas can be installed once to handle all traffic, especially on ticket-based tollways . A double-trumpet interchange can be found where
1612-448: The diverging windmill, increases capacity by altering the direction of traffic flow of the interchanging highways, making the connecting ramps much more direct. There also is a hybrid interchange somewhat like the diverging windmill in which left turn exits merge on the left, but it differs in that the left turn exits use left directional ramps. A braided or diverging interchange is a two-level, four-way interchange. An interchange
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1664-473: The first roads to feature grade-separations. Maryland engineer Arthur Hale filed a patent for the design of a cloverleaf interchange on May 24, 1915, though the conceptual roadwork was not realised until a cloverleaf opened on December 15, 1929, in Woodbridge, New Jersey , connecting New Jersey Route 25 and Route 4 (now U.S. Route 1/9 and New Jersey Route 35 ). It
1716-555: The interchange. In October 2022, Transport for London (TfL) imposed a 7.5 tonne weight restriction on the flyover due to issues with the bridge's structural integrity. According to TfL, a £50 million investment from the Department for Transport would be required to complete a repair of the flyover, though some criticised the plans in light of other issues with TfL's maintenance of infrastructure. TfL issued contracts for renewal works in early 2024, with at least £2.5 million allocated to
1768-541: The name of the nearby river, on 19 November 1923. It was the first station of the extension of what was then known as the Hampstead & Highgate Line, which was built through undeveloped rural areas to Edgware . The extension had first been planned prior to the First World War when the station had been due to be called "Woodstock". It was renamed from Brent to its current name on the 2 March 1976 opening of
1820-594: The opposite direction of travel and saves one signal phase of traffic lights each. The first DDIs were constructed in the French communities of Versailles ( A13 at D182), Le Perreux-sur-Marne ( A4 at N486) and Seclin ( A1 at D549), in the 1970s. Despite the fact that such interchanges already existed, the idea for the DDI was "reinvented" around 2000, inspired by the freeway-to-freeway interchange between Interstate 95 and I-695 north of Baltimore . The first DDI in
1872-513: The passing lane, so the semi-directional T interchange (see below) is preferred. The interchange of Highway 416 and Highway 417 in Ontario, constructed in the early 1990s, is one of the few directional T interchanges, as most transportation departments had switched to the semi-directional T design. As with a directional T interchange, a semi-directional T interchange uses flyover (overpass) or underpass ramps in all directions at
1924-543: The portmanteau, cloverstack ) is a hybrid of other interchange designs. It uses loop ramps to serve slower or less-occupied traffic flow , and flyover ramps to serve faster and heavier traffic flows. If local and express ways serving the same directions and each roadway is connected righthand to the interchange, extra ramps are installed. The combination interchange design is commonly used to upgrade cloverleaf interchanges to increase their capacity and eliminate weaving. Some turbine-stack hybrids: The turbine interchange
1976-467: The problem of weaving, and due to the semi-directional flyover ramps and directional ramps, they are generally safe and efficient at handling high traffic volumes in all directions. A standard stack interchange includes roads on four levels, also known as a 4-level stack, including the two perpendicular highways, and one more additional level for each pair of left-turn ramps. These ramps can be stacked (cross) in various configurations above, below, or between
2028-510: The project, not including £2.4 million spent on a feasibility study. Brent Cross Cricklewood is a planned new town centre development in Hendon and Cricklewood. The development is planned to cost around £4.5 billion to construct and will include 7,500 homes, 4,000,000 sq ft (370,000 m) of offices, four parks, transport improvements and a 592,000 sq ft (55,000 m) extension of Brent Cross Shopping Centre. The developers of
2080-587: The right side of the road. For left-side driving, the layout of junctions is mirrored. Both North American (NA) and British (UK) terminology is included. The concept of the controlled-access highway developed in the 1920s and 1930s in Italy, Germany, the United States, and Canada. Initially, these roads featured at-grade intersections along their length. Interchanges were developed to provide access between these new highways and heavily-travelled surface streets. The Bronx River Parkway and Long Island Motor Parkway were
2132-455: The rightmost lane. After demerging from right-turning traffic, they complete their left turn by crossing both highways on a flyover ramp or underpass. The penultimate step is a merge with the right-turn on-ramp traffic from the opposite quadrant of the interchange. Finally, an on-ramp merges both streams of incoming traffic into the left-bound highway. As there is only one off-ramp and one on-ramp (in that respective order), stacks do not suffer from
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2184-421: The road is extended. US 70 and US 17 west of New Bern, North Carolina is an example. A stack interchange is a four-way interchange whereby a semi-directional left turn and a directional right turn are both available. Usually, access to both turns is provided simultaneously by a single off-ramp. Assuming right-handed driving, to cross over incoming traffic and go left, vehicles first exit onto an off-ramp from
2236-407: The scheme are Hammerson and Abrdn . 200 new retail stores are included in the original plan. To counter the disruption of the area by the building works, the developers have offered to 'green up' the bridge over the North Circular and maintain it as a 'living bridge' making a horticultural contribution to the basic scheme. As market for new retail stores changes and demand is expected to decline with
2288-483: The shift to online shopping, BXS is changing its delivery plan and intends to focus on residential development first. Construction was planned to start in 2018 and be completed in 2021-22 but the retail development has currently been put on hold. The London Underground stations nearest to the shopping centre are Brent Cross and Hendon Central , both on the Northern line . According to the council, both "feel very remote and lack adequate pedestrian links and signage", and
2340-503: The shopping centre. Two passing loops were built at the station, not long after it opened, to allow fast trains to overtake slower ones here, but these extra tracks were removed in the 1930s. The bridges over Highfield Avenue reflect this extra width, although both north and south of the station the alignment narrows again. A planning application, registered in March 2008, for the nearby Brent Cross area would improve bus services passing
2392-743: The site. The crane jib buckled and collapsed onto a coach travelling east on the North Circular Road killing seven passengers on board. A question was raised in Parliament about the accident on 22 June. Brent South Shopping Park, a 94,000-square-foot (8,700 m) retail park , was built in 2004. The park has 10 retail stores including Next , DFS and Sports Direct . Whilst three-level roundabouts are compact and initially cheap to build, they have been criticised for their short lifespans, turning difficulties and limited capacity. Soon after construction, some engineers had concerns regarding
2444-572: The station. A turning circle for buses outside the tube station is proposed, needing the demolition of nearby housing. In early 2008, the London Group of the Campaign for Better Transport published the North and West London Light Railway Proposal (q.v.) for a rapid transit scheme through the Brent Cross site, terminating at the tube station. London Buses routes 112 , 210 and 232 serve
2496-615: The term single-point diamond interchange is considered the correct phrasing. Single-point interchanges were first built in the early 1970s along U.S. Route 19 in the Tampa Bay area of Florida , including the SR 694 interchange in St. Petersburg and SR 60 in Clearwater . Brent Cross tube station Brent Cross is a London Underground station located on Highfield Avenue in
2548-502: The two interchanging highways. This makes them distinct from turbine interchanges, where pairs of left-turn ramps are separated but at the same level. There are some stacks that could be considered 5-level; however, these remain four-way interchanges, since the fifth level actually consists of dedicated ramps for HOV /bus lanes or frontage roads running through the interchange. The stack interchange between I-10 and I-405 in Los Angeles
2600-540: Was considered a revolutionary design at the time of its construction. A cloverleaf offers uninterrupted connections between two roads but suffers from weaving issues. Along the mainline, a loop ramp introduces traffic prior to a second loop ramp providing access to the crossroad, between which ingress and egress traffic mixes. For this reason, the cloverleaf interchange has fallen out of favour in place of combination interchanges . Some may be half cloverleaf containing ghost ramps which can be upgraded to full cloverleafs if
2652-436: Was designed by Philadelphia engineering firm Rudolph and Delano, based on a design seen in an Argentinian magazine. A system interchange connects multiple controlled-access highways, involving no at-grade signalised intersections. A cloverleaf interchange is a four-legged junction where left turns across opposing traffic are handled by non-directional loop ramps. It is named for its appearance from above, which resembles
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#17327727180732704-596: Was designed by Philadelphia engineering firm Rudolph and Delano based on a design seen in an Argentinian magazine. The first cloverleaf in Canada opened in 1938 at the junction of Highway 10 and what would become the Queen Elizabeth Way . The first cloverleaf outside of North America opened in Stockholm on October 15, 1935. Nicknamed Slussen , it was referred to as a "traffic carousel" and
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