126-492: The London Ringways were a series of four ring roads planned in the 1960s to circle London at various distances from the city centre. They were part of a comprehensive scheme developed by the Greater London Council (GLC) to alleviate traffic congestion on the city's road system by providing high-speed motorway -standard roads within the capital, linking a series of radial roads taking traffic into and out of
252-526: A Ministry of Transport report, The Highway Development Survey, 1937 , which reviewed London's road needs and recommended the construction of many miles of new roads and the improvement of junctions at key congestion points. Amongst their proposals was the provision of a series of orbital roads around the city with the outer ones built as American-style Parkways – wide, landscaped roads with limited access and grade-separated junctions. These included an eastern extension of Western Avenue, which eventually became
378-413: A city or town, with the standard of road being anything from an ordinary city street up to motorway level. An excellent example of this is London's North Circular/South Circular ring roads, which are largely made up of (mainly congested) ordinary city streets. In some cases, a circumferential route is formed by the combination of a major through highway and a similar-quality loop route that extends out from
504-669: A complete belt road around Hawaii Island . Other major U.S. cities with such a beltway superhighway: There are other U.S. superhighway beltway systems that consist of multiple routes that require multiple interchanges and thus do not provide true ring routes. Two designated examples are the Capital Beltway around Harrisburg, Pennsylvania using Interstate 81 , Interstate 83 , and Pennsylvania Route 581 and "The Bypass" around South Bend, Indiana using Interstate 80 , Interstate 90 , U.S. Route 31 , and Indiana State Road 331 . Edmonton , Alberta, has two ring roads. The first
630-611: A complete scheme, protesters against specific parts of it in different areas were able to unite against a common goal, which led to the Layfield Inquiry successfully challenging the proposals. The Labour party made large gains in the GLC elections of April 1973 with a policy of fighting the Ringways scheme. Given the continuing fierce opposition across London and the likely enormous cost, the cabinet cancelled funding and hence
756-524: A main speed of 50 miles per hour (80 km/h) aside from the sliproads, which were designed for 30 miles per hour (48 km/h). All elevated sections of the road were designed to support HA loading plus 45 units of HB loading in any direction. Prince Charles visited the construction work in 1968, aged nineteen. The road was opened to traffic by the Minister of Transport John Peyton and junior transport minister Michael Heseltine on 28 July 1970 at
882-641: A motorway. Reports suggested between 15,000 and 80,000 Londoners would lose their homes as a result of the Ringways. The Treasury and the Ministry of Transport both came out against the scheme, primarily because of worries over the cost. The Chancellor of the Exchequer Roy Jenkins said he could not prevent the GLC from proposing the schemes, but assumed that the government could ultimately prevent them from being implemented. Despite this opposition,
1008-553: A new school. In March 1971, it was announced that all 41 homes on Acklam Road would be demolished. By 1972, it had been estimated approximately 5,000 families had lost their homes for each mile of the Westway constructed. In 1974, the GLC announced 11.5 acres (4.7 ha) of land in Notting Hill to the north of the Westway would be compulsory purchased and redeveloped with new apartments and screening walls to reduce noise from
1134-535: A period of several years and were subject to a continuing process of review and modification. Roads were added and omitted as the overall scheme was altered, and many alternative route alignments were considered during the planning process The plan was published in stages starting with Ringway 1 in 1966 and Ringway 2 in 1967. After the Conservatives won the GLC elections in the latter year, they confirmed that both Ringways would be constructed as planned. The plan
1260-485: A permanently unfinished junction at Hackney Wick with the proposed North Cross Route. Another relic of the scheme is Southwyck House in Brixton, which was designed to shield the housing estate to its south from the noise of Ringway 1, leading to its nickname of "Barrier Block". Ring road A ring road (also known as circular road, beltline , beltway , circumferential ( high ) way , loop or orbital )
1386-539: A radius of 12 miles from St Paul's ". Between 1913 and 1916, a series of conferences took place, bringing all road plans in Greater London together as a single body. Over the next decade, 214 miles (344 km) of new roads were constructed, primarily as post-war unemployment relief. These included the North Circular Road from Hanger Lane to Gants Hill , Western Avenue and Eastern Avenue ,
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#17327724416081512-422: A ring road or ring road system: In Iceland , there is a 1,332 km ring road, called the ring road (or Route 1), around most of the island (excluding only the remote Westfjords ). Most of the country's settlements are on or near this road. Major cities that are served by a ring road or ring road system: Westway, London The Westway is a 2.5-mile (4 km) elevated dual carriageway section of
1638-731: A ring that was distinctly box-shaped, and Ringway 1 was unofficially called the London Motorway Box . In 1963, Colin Buchanan published a report, Traffic in Towns , which had been commissioned by the Transport Minister, Ernest Marples . In contrast to earlier reports, it cautioned that road building would generate and increase traffic and cause environmental damage. It also recommended pedestrianisation of town centres and segregating different traffic types. The report
1764-478: A starting point and reused many of his proposals in the outlying areas but scrapped the plans in the inner zone. Abercrombie's A Ring was scrapped as being far too expensive and impractical. The innermost circuit, Ringway 1, was approximately the same distance from the centre as the B Ring. It used some of Abercrombie's suggested route, but it was planned to use existing transport corridors, such as railway lines, much more than before. The location of these lines produced
1890-528: A through-the-city route there, with the Beltway encircling the city as I-495. The portion of I-95 entering the city from the south was soon completed (and so signed), primarily by adapting an existing major highway, but the planned extension of I-95 through residential areas northward to the Beltway was long delayed, and eventually abandoned, leaving the eastern portion of the Beltway as the best Interstate-quality route for through traffic. This eastern portion of
2016-631: A time, temporarily designated as part of the M11. At its eastern end, Ringway 2 was planned to have crossed the River Thames at Gallions Reach in a new tunnel between Beckton and Thamesmead . Although this tunnel was never built, the utility of an additional river crossing in this area continued to be recognised during the decades after the Ringway Scheme's cancellation and various proposals for an East London River Crossing have been developed,
2142-457: A total cost of £30 million (£586 million in 2023), and classified A40(M). At its opening the road was the largest continuous elevated structure in Europe and was constructed with some advanced features, such as heating grids on slopes to control the formation of ice. After completion a corridor of wasteland remained below the motorway, which the government had no plans to develop. The Westway
2268-634: A town or city, typically without either signals or road or railroad crossings. In the United States, beltways are commonly parts of the Interstate Highway System. Similar roads in the United Kingdom are often called "orbital motorways". Although the terms "ring road" and "orbital motorway" are sometimes used interchangeably, "ring road" often indicates a circumferential route formed from one or more existing roads within
2394-532: A true ring road around Detroit is effectively blocked by its location on the border with Canada and the Detroit River ; although constructing a route mostly or entirely outside city limits is technically feasible, a true ring around Detroit would necessarily pass through Canada, and so Interstate 275 and Interstate 696 together bypass but do not encircle the city. Sometimes, the presence of significant natural or historical areas limits route options, as for
2520-947: A viaduct. It continued along the North London line through Hackney and Homerton , leading to a junction with the East Cross Route at Hackney Wick . The whole of the East Cross Route was built. It runs south from Hackney Wick as the A12 (previously designated as the A102(M) and A102 ) to Bow Road , then, as the A102, under the River Thames via the Blackwall Tunnel to the Sun in the Sands roundabout at Blackheath , then as
2646-695: Is 2.5 miles (4 km) long and is located in the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea . At its eastern end, the Westway starts to the west of the Marylebone Flyover ( A501 ), which takes traffic over the junction of Edgware Road ( A5 ) and Marylebone Road (part of the London Inner Ring Road ). Between the Westway and the flyover, a section of surface-level road allows westbound traffic from
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#17327724416082772-405: Is a loose conglomeration of four major arterial roads with an average distance of 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) from the downtown core. Yellowhead Trail forms the northern section, Wayne Gretzky Drive /75 Street forms the eastern section, Whitemud Drive forms the southern and longest section, and 170 Street forms the western and shortest section. Whitemud Drive is the only section that
2898-409: Is a road or a series of connected roads encircling a town, city or country. The most common purpose of a ring road is to assist in reducing traffic volumes in the urban centre, such as by offering an alternate route around the city for drivers who do not need to stop in the city core. Ring roads can also serve to connect suburbs to each other, allowing efficient travel between them. The name "ring road"
3024-413: Is a true controlled-access highway , while Yellowhead Trail and Wayne Gretzky Drive have interchanges and intersections and are therefore both limited-access roads . 170 Street and 75 Street are merely large arterial roads with intersections only. The second and more prominent ring road is named Anthony Henday Drive ; it circles the city at an average distance of 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) from
3150-417: Is challenging when a through highway and a loop bypass together form a circumferential ring road. Since neither of the highways involved is circumferential itself, either dual signage or two (or more) route numbers is needed. The history of signage on the Capital Beltway around Washington, D.C., is instructive here. Interstate 95 , a major through highway along the U.S. East Coast , was originally planned as
3276-512: Is entitled "Westway". The Westway is referenced in Pete Doherty 's "Broken Love Song", in the line "By the Westway, Inside The Scrubs ", as he claimed to have once lived beside the Westway in a caravan. It is also featured on the front cover of A Weekend in the City by Bloc Party . The picture, part of A Modern Project was taken by German photographer Rut Blees Luxemburg . The Westway
3402-793: Is used for the majority of metropolitan circumferential routes in Europe, such as the Berliner Ring , the Brussels Ring , the Amsterdam Ring , the Boulevard Périphérique around Paris and the Leeds Inner and Outer ring roads. Australia , Pakistan and India also use the term ring road, as in Melbourne 's Western Ring Road , Lahore 's Lahore Ring Road and Hyderabad 's Outer Ring Road . In Canada
3528-654: The A2 to Kidbrooke , meeting the South Cross Route. The South Cross Route ran beneath Blackheath Park in a tunnel, following railways as much as possible for its route though Peckham , Brixton , where it was planned to connect with the " South Cross Route to Parkway D Radial " a motorway running south-east to Ringway 3, and Clapham to Nine Elms . There was then a link to the West Cross Route and Ringway 2 at Wandsworth . The West Cross Route followed
3654-907: The A24 at Colliers Wood . An elevated section alongside the Sutton Loop Line between Tooting and Haydons Road took it up to the Wandle Valley. It crossed the South West Main Line to meet the A3 at a major junction in Wandsworth . From here, it continued to Putney alongside railways, before meeting the northern section at Chiswick. In 1970 the GLC expected the 25-mile (40 km) long southern ring to cost £305m, including £63m for property purchases. It would require 1,007 acres (4.08 km) and affect 5,705 houses. Ringway 3
3780-622: The A40 trunk road in West London running from Paddington in the east to North Kensington in the west. It connects the London Inner Ring Road to the West London suburbs. The road was constructed between 1962 and 1970 to connect the proposed London Ringways motorway scheme to Paddington, and opened as the A40(M) . It was the first urban motorway project in London and attracted criticism for
3906-500: The Capital Beltway around Washington, D.C. Some ring roads, such as Washington's Capital Beltway, use "Inner Loop" and "Outer Loop" terminology for directions of travel, since cardinal (compass) directions cannot be signed uniformly around the entire loop. The term 'ring road' is occasionally – and inaccurately – used interchangeably with the term ' bypass '. Bypasses around many large and small towns were built in many areas when many old roads were converted to four-lane status in
London Ringways - Misplaced Pages Continue
4032-478: The Central line and Wood Lane ( A219 ) before returning to ground level and continuing to the junction with Old Oak Common Lane where Westway connects end-on to the eastern end of Western Avenue . From the elevated road between Westbourne Park and Ladbroke Grove, Trellick Tower is visible to the north; east of the roundabout, the site of Grenfell Tower is visible to the south. With the extension westward of
4158-474: The Frankfurt area, major national highways converge just outside city limits before forming one of several routes of an urban network of roads circling the city. Unlike in United States, route numbering is not a challenge on European ring roads as routes merge to form the single designated road. However, exit and road junction access can be challenging due to the complexity of other routes branching from or into
4284-796: The Great West Road bypassing Brentford , and bypasses of Kingston , Croydon , Watford and Barnet . In 1924, the Ministry of Transport proposed another circular route, the North Orbital Road. This ran further out from London than the North Circular and was planned to be around 70 miles (110 km) long, running from the A4 at Colnbrook to the A13 at Tilbury . In May 1938, Sir Charles Bressey and Sir Edwin Lutyens published
4410-504: The London Congestion Charge Zone between 19 February 2007 and 4 January 2011, the part of the road between Westbourne Park and the Westway roundabout that passed through the zone was designated as a "free through route" that allowed vehicles to cross the zone without paying the charge. The Westway was built as an extension of Western Avenue to form a link from Paddington to Ringway 1 , the innermost circuit of
4536-533: The London Ringways network, part of a complex and comprehensive plan for a network of high speed roads circling and radiating out from central London designed to manage and control the flow of traffic. This plan had developed from early schemes prior to World War II through Patrick Abercrombie 's County of London Plan , published in 1943, and the following year's Greater London Plan, to a 1960s Greater London Council (GLC) scheme that would have involved
4662-533: The London Underground . The GLC attempted to hold on to the Ringway plans until the early 1970s, hoping that they would eventually be built. By 1972, in an attempt to placate the Ringway plan's vociferous opponents, the GLC removed the northern section of Ringway 1 and the southern section of Ringway 2 from the proposals. In January 1973, the enquiry recommended that Ringway 1 be built, but that much of
4788-516: The M25 and M26 from Wrotham Heath to Hunton Bridge . Sections of the A405 and A414 through Hertfordshire follow its proposed route. The road was planned as a combination of motorway and all-purpose dual carriageway , connecting a number of towns around the capital including Tilbury , Epping , Hoddesdon , Hatfield , St Albans , Watford , Denham , Leatherhead and Sevenoaks . Despite its name,
4914-943: The North and South Circular roads and the Inner Ring Road ). Birmingham also has three ring roads which consist of the Birmingham Box ; the A4540 , commonly known as the Middleway; and the A4040 , the Outer Ring Road. Birmingham once had a fourth ring road, the A4400 . This has been partially demolished and downgraded to improve traffic flow into the city. Other British cities have two: Leeds , Sheffield , Norwich and Glasgow . Cleveland, OH and San Antonio, TX , in
5040-631: The Pink Fairies , played several free benefit and charity concerts underneath the motorway, pictures of which appeared on the inner sleeve of Hawkwind's second album In Search of Space . One such concert by the Pink Fairies under the Westway - disrupted by the police because a neighbour complained that was unable to hear his television over the noise - is referenced in the track "Right On Fight On" on their second album What A Bunch Of Sweeties . The opening track on Sky 's 1979 debut album
5166-495: The United States , also each have two, while Houston, Texas will have three official ring roads (not including the downtown freeway loop). Some cities have far more – Beijing , for example, has six ring roads , simply numbered in increasing order from the city center (though skipping #1), while Moscow has five, three innermost ( Central Squares of Moscow , Boulevard Ring and Garden Ring ) corresponding to
London Ringways - Misplaced Pages Continue
5292-733: The West London line , with a bridge over the Thames near Chelsea Basin. There was a planned interchange with Cromwell Road ( A4 ) at Earl's Court and with Holland Park Avenue at Shepherd's Bush . The section north Shepherd's Bush to the Westway was constructed as planned. North of the Westway, it would have continued to follow the West London line, crossing the Great Western railway and the Grand Union Canal , linking with
5418-482: The Westway . Bressey's plans called for significant demolition of existing properties, that would have divided communities if they had been built. However, he reported that the average traffic speed on three of London's radial routes was 12.5 miles per hour (20.1 km/h), and consequently their construction was essential. The plans stalled, as the London County Council were responsible for roads in
5544-400: The 17th century. Various select committees were established in the late 1830s and early 1840s in order to establish means of improving communication and transport in the city. The Royal Commission on London Traffic (1903–05) produced eight volumes of reports on roads, railways and tramways in the London area, including a suggestion for "constructing a circular road about 75 miles in length at
5670-818: The 1930s to 1950s, such as those along the Old National Road (now generally U.S. 40 or Interstate 70 ) in the United States, leaving the old road in place to serve the town or city, but allowing through travelers to continue on a wider, faster and safer route. Construction of fully circumferential ring roads has generally occurred more recently, beginning in the 1960s in many areas, when the U.S. Interstate Highway System and similar-quality roads elsewhere were designed. Ring roads have now been built around numerous cities and metropolitan areas, including cities with multiple ring roads, irregularly shaped ring roads and ring roads made up of various other long-distance roads. London has three ring roads (the M25 motorway ,
5796-512: The 1930s. South of the river, Ringway 2 would have headed roughly toward the North Circular Road at Chiswick , though there was no definite proposed route. Much of the Ringway, particularly the southern section where a new route was required, would have been placed in cuttings to mitigate disruption to local residents. The North Circular Road was to have been improved to motorway standard along its existing route. Some plans refer to
5922-680: The 1950s and not yet completed, called the Suburban Beltway. It consists of several roads— Lagimodière Boulevard , Abinojii Mikanah , the Fort Garry Bridge, the Moray Bridge, William R Clement Parkway , Chief Peguis Trail and the Kildonan Bridge . Saskatoon , Saskatchewan, has a ring road named Circle Drive. It is cosigned as Saskatchewan Highway 16 and Saskatchewan Highway 11 along the whole route since
6048-431: The 1980s and 1990s, most significantly the M25 , which was created out of two different sections of Ringways joined together. The project caused an increase in road protesting and an eventual agreement that new road construction in London was not generally possible without huge disruption. Since 2000, Transport for London has promoted public transport and discouraged road use. London has been significantly congested since
6174-415: The 2013 opening of Circle Drive South. Regina , Saskatchewan has a partial ring road that is named Ring Road ; however, due to the city's urban growth since the road was originally constructed, it no longer functions as a true ring road and has instead come to be used partially for local arterial traffic. The Regina Bypass , a new partial ring road, has replaced it, although Ring Road must still be used in
6300-604: The Beltway ", derived metonymically from the Capital Beltway encircling Washington, D.C. Ring roads have been criticised for inducing demand , leading to more car journeys being taken and thus higher levels of pollution being created. By creating easy access by car to large areas of land, they can also act as a catalyst for development, leading to urban sprawl and car-centric planning. Ring roads have also been criticised for splitting communities and being difficult to navigate for pedestrians and cyclists. Most orbital motorways (or beltways) are purpose-built major highways around
6426-468: The Beltway was then redesignated from I-495 to I-95, leaving the I-495 designation only on the western portion, and the completed part of the planned Interstate inside the Beltway was redesignated as a spur, I-395 . A few years later, the resulting confusion from different route numbers on the circumferential Beltway was resolved by restoring I-495 signage for the entire Beltway, with dual signage for I-95 for
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#17327724416086552-466: The British Road Federation surveyed 2,000 Londoners, 80% of whom favoured more new roads being built. In contrast, a public enquiry was held to review the GLDP in a climate of strong and vocal opposition from many of the London Borough councils and residents associations that would have seen motorways driven through their neighbourhoods. The Westway and a section of the West Cross Route from Shepherd's Bush to North Kensington , opened in 1970. It showed
6678-472: The GLC continued to develop its plans, and began the construction of some of the parts of the scheme. The plan, still with much of the detail to be worked out, was included in the Greater London Development Plan, 1969 (GLDP) along with much else not related to roads and traffic management. In 1970, the GLC estimated that the cost of building Ringway 1 along with sections of 2 and 3 would be £1.7 billion (approximately £33.2 billion as of 2023). In 1970,
6804-446: The London Borough of Greenwich, the motorway crossed to Baring Road (the A2212 ) near Grove Park station . After this, there was a cut-and-cover tunnel underneath playing fields at Whitefoot Lane, followed by an elevated section over Bromley Road ( A21 ). West of Bromley Road, Ringway 2 remained on an elevated alignment towards Beckenham Hill station . From here, it continued through more open land towards Lower Sydenham station where
6930-461: The M4 from Chiswick to Langley and the Five Ways interchange at Hendon . However, passing an eight lane elevated motorway through a densely populated area involved the clearance of a large number of buildings adjacent to the railway, particularly in the area west of Westbourne Park, where several roads were truncated or demolished to make way for the concrete structures. London County Council architect Hubert Bennett speculated that some sections of
7056-448: The North Cross Route at Willesden Junction. Ringway 2 was an upgrade of the North Circular Road (A406) and a new motorway to replace the South Circular Road (A205). The North Circular Road was largely a coherent route (see "Background" above), but the South Circular Road was merely a signposted route through the suburbs of South London on pre-existing sections of standard roads, involving twists and turns, selected by route planners in
7182-407: The United States. In many cases, such as Interstate 285 in Atlanta, Georgia , circumferential highways serve as a bypass while other highways pass directly through the city center. In other cases, a primary Interstate highway passes around a city on one side, with a connecting loop Interstate bypassing the city on the other side, together forming a circumferential route, as with I-93 and I-495 in
7308-438: The West Cross Route and the roundabout avoided the planned line of the road to the north. The Westway was funded by the GLC with a 25% grant from central government. The main contractor was John Laing & Sons , while the flyovers at the eastern end were engineered by Sir Bruce White and Partners. The road was planned to support three lanes in each direction, but was upgraded to include hard shoulders in 1966. The route
7434-412: The West Cross Route between North Kensington and Shepherd's Bush was opened by John Peyton and Michael Heseltine in 1970, simultaneously with Westway , to protests; some residents hung a huge banners with 'Get us out of this Hell – Rehouse Us Now' outside their windows and protesters disrupted the opening procession by driving a lorry the wrong way along the new road. The East Cross Route, incorporating
7560-408: The Westway runs parallel with the Great Western Main Line , before turning south-west at Westbourne Park and crossing the railway to run immediately adjacent to London Underground 's Hammersmith & City line as far as Ladbroke Grove station . The road then returns to an east–west alignment to the elevated roundabout junction with the West Cross Route ( A3220 ) and flyover above this, crossing
7686-432: The Westway, forming a so-called "independent state" of Frestonia . Residents on Acklam Road, which ran parallel to the Westway between Ladbroke Grove and Westbourne Park, draped a large banner across several houses reading "Get us out of this hell! Rehouse us now!" Locals complained about having to use Westbourne Terrace and Gloucester Terrace , both residential streets with several listed buildings, as access roads for
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#17327724416087812-431: The Westway, saying "a more inappropriate and negative use for the space could not be imagined". The North Kensington Amenity Trust (now Westway Development Trust ), was founded in 1971 to develop the land for local community use. Since 2000, local charity Urban Eye has initiated a programme of cleaning, painting, and lighting to improve the visual appearance and safety of the areas under the flyover structure. Because of
7938-437: The Westway. Shortly after opening, a group of residents planned to blockade the motorway and stop traffic in protest at the excessive noise of the road. Eight houses on Walmer Road, North Kensington, severed by the construction of the Westway, were planned to be demolished and their residents re-homed, but there were no plans for other nearby properties. Until 1973, there was no legal obligation to compensate anyone living outside
8064-499: The Westway. The land underneath the road was used as a setting for riots in the films Breaking Glass and Sammy and Rosie Get Laid . Episode Mangrove of the anthology series Small Axe features a time lapse visual effects montage of the Westway construction. Westway was a BBC World Service radio series that ran from 1997 until 2005. It featured the community surrounding the road. The Westway has featured in songs by several British rock bands. The Clash referred to
8190-472: The amount of land required for construction, including the North London line in the north, the Greenwich Park branch line in the south, and the West London line to the west. Ringway 1 was expected to cost £480 million (£9.38 billion today) including £144 million (£2.74 billion today) for property purchases. It would require 1,048 acres (4.24 km) and affect 7,585 houses. Only two parts of Ringway 1 were completed and opened to traffic. Part of
8316-541: The architect/planner Lord Esher and Michael Thomson, a transport economist at the London School of Economics , calculated that costs had been enormously underestimated and would show marginal economic returns. They predicted large quantities of additional traffic that would be generated purely as a result of the new roads. Access to the new roads would soon be overwhelmed even before the rings and radial roads were near capacity, while about 1 million Londoners would find their lives blighted by living within 200 yards of
8442-479: The area of Lawrence, Massachusetts . However, if a primary Interstate passes through a city and a loop bypasses it on only one side (as in the Wilmington, Delaware , area), no fully circumferential route is provided. Within cities, ring roads sometimes have local nicknames; these include Washington DC's Interstate 495 (The "Capital Beltway"), Interstate 270 in Columbus, Ohio (The "Outerbelt"), and Interstate 285 in Atlanta (The "Perimeter"). Route numbering
8568-420: The boundaries of the highway, no matter how close their property was or what nuisance the road may have caused. On 9 August 1970, the Westway was closed for an hour after a group of 80 protesters marched along the road carrying placards. Four people were arrested. The following month, the GLC announced that a further 28 homes on Walmer Road would be compulsory purchased and the residents moved, in order to build
8694-435: The capital, and could not find adequate funding. The Ringway plan had developed from early schemes prior to the Second World War through Sir Patrick Abercrombie's County of London Plan , 1943 and Greater London Plan , 1944 . One of the topics that Abercrombie's two plans had examined was London's traffic congestion, and The County of London Plan proposed a series of ring roads labelled A to E to help remove traffic from
8820-562: The central area. Even in a war-ravaged city with large areas requiring reconstruction, the building of the two innermost rings, A and B, would have involved considerable demolition and upheaval. The cost of the construction works needed to upgrade the existing London streets and roads to dual carriageway or motorway standards was considered significant; the A ring would have displaced 5,300 families. Because of post-war funding shortages, Abercrombie's plans were not intended to be carried out immediately. They were intended to be gradually built over
8946-408: The city of Calgary , Alberta, for an entire length of 101-kilometre (63 mi). Winnipeg , Manitoba, has a ring road which is called the Perimeter Highway . It is designated as Manitoba Highway 101 on the north, northwest and east sides and as Manitoba Highway 100 on the south and southwest sides. The majority of it is a four-lane divided expressway . It has a second ring road, planned since
9072-488: The city. There had been plans to construct new roads around London to help traffic since at least the 17th century. Several were built in the early 20th century such as the North Circular Road , Western Avenue and Eastern Avenue , and further plans were put forward in 1937 with The Highway Development Survey , followed by the County of London Plan in 1943. The Ringways originated from these earlier plans, and consisted of
9198-614: The concentric lines of fortifications around the ancient city, and the two outermost ( MKAD and Third Ring ) built in the twentieth century, though, confusingly, the Third Ring was built last. Geographical constraints can complicate the construction of a complete ring road. For example, the Baltimore Beltway in Maryland formerly crossed Baltimore Harbor on a high arch bridge prior to its collapse in 2024, and much of
9324-813: The construction costs and public opposition of the Westway, most of the London Ringways scheme was cancelled in 1973. The Westway, the West Cross Route and East Cross Route in east London were the only significant parts to be built. Other parts of the Ringway network were later built as all-purpose roads , including the M11 link road from Hackney to Redbridge , which drew major protests and opposition . Westway lost its motorway status in May 2000 when responsibility for trunk roads in Greater London
9450-418: The construction of motorway-standard roads across the city, requiring substantial demolition. The elevated roundabout junction with the West Cross Route was built with the capability to be extended once the planned northern continuation of the latter road was constructed to Harlesden . Two stubs on the roundabout's north side were built for the connection of slip roads and the alignment of the slip roads between
9576-564: The construction of the first section was in progress, the plan for Ringways 3 and 4 were modified considerably. Broadly speaking, the northern and eastern section of Ringway 3 (from the current junction 23 of the M25 motorway with the A1 east and south to the current junction 3 with the M20 ) was to be built and connected to the southern and western section of Ringway 4 to create the M25. The remaining parts of
9702-509: The downtown core. It is a freeway for its entire 78-kilometre (48 mi) length, and was built to reduce inner-city traffic congestion, created a bypass of Yellowhead Trail, and has improved the movement of goods and services across Edmonton and the surrounding areas. It was completed in October 2016 as the first free-flowing orbital road in Canada. Stoney Trail is a ring road that circles
9828-420: The elevated Westway which links Paddington to North Kensington . These were all begun and completed before the plan was cancelled. With its elevated roadway on concrete pylons flying above the streets below at rooftop height, the Westway provides a good example of how much of Ringway 1 would have appeared had it been constructed. The East Cross route was the only part to be built in its entirety and it includes
9954-584: The flyover to turn-off on to the Harrow Road ( A404 ) or eastbound traffic from the Harrow Road to access the flyover. Eastbound traffic from the Westway cannot exit here to reach the Edgware Road and continues on to the flyover. Heading west, the Westway rises as it passes Paddington Green and crosses the Grand Union Canal branch to Paddington Basin . As the road passes Westbourne Green on
10080-665: The highway's concurrent use as a through Interstate on its eastern portion. The longest complete beltway in the United States is the Charles W. Anderson Loop , a 94-mile (151 km) loop in Texas that forms a complete loop around the Greater San Antonio area. The longest complete belt road, or a beltway that is only two lanes, in the United States is Hawaii Belt Road , a 260-mile (420 km) belt in Hawaii that forms
10206-530: The junction of the North Circular Road and the A10 was only completed in 1990 after several other schemes had been blocked. At the western end of the North Circular Road a new section of motorway would have been constructed to take the route of Ringway 2 eastwards from the junction with the M4 at Gunnersbury along the course of the railway line through Chiswick to meet and cross the River Thames at Barnes . This section
10332-422: The lack of care over the environment, the well-being of local residents and communities, and the handling of those whose homes would be demolished. Road protests increased following its opening. In 2000, the Westway was downgraded to an all-purpose road after the formation of Transport for London . The road has become a significant London landmark and has been noted in several works of popular culture. The road
10458-542: The long-proposed Outer Beltway around Washington, D.C., where options for a new western Potomac River crossing are limited by a nearly continuous corridor of heavily visited scenic, natural, and historical landscapes in the Potomac River Gorge and adjacent areas. When referring to a road encircling a capital city, the term "beltway" can also have a political connotation, as in the American term " Inside
10584-418: The main four ring roads and other developments. Certain sections were upgrades of existing earlier projects such as the North Circular, but much of it was new-build. Construction began on some sections in the 1960s in response to increasing concern about car ownership and traffic. The Ringway plans attracted vociferous opposition towards the end of the decade over the demolition of properties and noise pollution
10710-489: The most recent of which was the Thames Gateway Bridge , cancelled in 2008. The South Circular Road was in the 1960s, and remains still, little more than an arbitrary route through the southern half of the city following roads that are mainly just single carriageway. The road planners considered the existing routing unsuitable for a direct upgrade so a new replacement motorway was planned for a route further to
10836-464: The motorway between Godstone and Reigate (junctions 6 to 8) in 1973, and included a junction with the M23 motorway which was under construction at the same time. This opened in 1976; the remaining sections of the southern Ringway 4 were constructed over the next ten years. While the construction of the first section was in progress, the plan for Ringways 3 and 4 was modified considerably. Broadly speaking,
10962-479: The motorway section of Ringway 4 was to be built and connected to the northern and eastern section of Ringway 3 (from the current M25 junction 23 with the A1 clockwise to the current junction 3 with the M20). Two additional sections of motorway were added to the plan to join the two original sections and the remaining parts of the two rings were cancelled. The south-eastern section of Ringway 4 between Wrotham and Sevenoaks
11088-492: The motorway would have turned south to run alongside the railway line past New Beckenham station . It then rose to an interchange with Elmers End Road ( A214 ). Continuing along the railway line south-west of Birkbeck station , near Cambridge Road there was a proposed interchange with another of the GLC's planned motorways, the "South Cross Route to Parkway D Radial" coming south-east along the railway line from Ringway 1 at Brixton and heading to Ringway 3. Like Ringway 2 this road
11214-411: The motorway. The project has since been condemned for the negative effect it had on local communities and housing, and contributed to the increased interest in anti-road protesting. The British Road Federation called the Westway "one of the insensitive and socially unacceptable examples of motorways." The North Kensington Playspace Group was established in 1966 by Adam Ritchie, who strongly criticised
11340-633: The new 'eastern bore' of the Blackwall Tunnel opened in 1967, was completed in 1979. The North Cross Route began south of Willesden Junction and followed the North London line eastwards then passed under the Midland main line and Metropolitan line at West Hampstead , where it was intended to meet a planned extension of the M1 motorway with a link to Finchley Road . It diverged away from
11466-473: The next 30 years. The subsequent austerity period meant that very little of his plan was carried out. The A Ring was formally cancelled by Clement Attlee 's Labour government in May 1950. After 1951, the County of London focused on improving existing roads rather than Abercrombie's proposals. By the start of the 1960s, the number of private cars and commercial vehicles on the roads had increased considerably from
11592-429: The north and Royal Oak Underground Station on the south, it gains a lane from a climbing slip-road from Gloucester Terrace. Eastbound, one lane diverges from the mainline to a sliproad crossing the railway to Paddington station via Westbourne Bridge . The bridge once carried traffic from Harrow Road to Bishops Bridge Road but was blocked at the north end and appropriated for the Westway scheme. Continuing westward,
11718-711: The northeast quadrant of the city. Hamilton , Ontario, has the Lincoln M. Alexander Parkway , Highway 403 and the Red Hill Valley Parkway which form a ring on three sides. Sudbury , Ontario, has a partial ring road consisting of the Southwest and Southeast Bypasses segment of Highway 17 , and the Northwest Bypass segment of Highway 144 . An unofficial northeast "bypass" route can also be completed on city arterial roads that largely bypass
11844-544: The number before the war. British car manufacturing doubled between 1953 and 1960. The Conservative government, led by Prime Minister Harold Macmillan , had strong ties to the road transport industry, with more than 70 members of parliament being members of the British Road Federation . Political pressure to build roads and improve vehicular traffic increased, which led to a revival of Abercrombie's plans. The Ringway plan took Abercrombie's earlier schemes as
11970-522: The parent road, later reconnecting with the same highway. Such loops not only function as a bypass for through traffic, but also to serve outlying suburbs . In the United States, an Interstate highway loop is usually designated by a three-digit number beginning with an even digit before the two-digit number of its parent interstate. Interstate spurs, on the other hand, generally have three-digit numbers beginning with an odd digit. Circumferential highways are prominent features in or near many large cities in
12096-691: The partially completed Stockholm Ring Road in Sweden runs through tunnels or over long bridges. Some towns or cities on sea coasts or near rugged mountains cannot have a full ring road. Examples of such partial ring roads are Dublin's ring road ; and, in the USA, Interstate 287 , mostly in New Jersey (bypassing New York City), and Interstate 495 around Boston , none of which completely circles these seaport cities. In other cases, adjacent international boundaries may prevent ring road completion. Construction of
12222-510: The project. Ringway 1 was the London Motorway box, comprising the North , East , South and West Cross Routes. Ringway 1 was planned to comprise four sections across the capital forming a roughly rectangular box of motorways. These sections were designated: Much of the scheme would have been constructed as elevated roads on concrete pylons and the routes were designed to follow the alignments of existing railway lines to minimise
12348-466: The protagonist couple in the song are "lost on the Westway", and the road is mentioned in two other songs by the band, " Fool's Day " and " Under the Westway ". Dirty Pretty Things refer to the Westway in the song "Truth Begins"; the opening lyrics are "The Westway walls so tall and bleak / Reflect the words we dare not speak". Local groups from the Ladbroke Grove scene, notably Hawkwind and
12474-485: The public what the Ringways would be like for local residents and what demolition would be required, and led to increased complaints over the scheme. The GLDP received 22,000 formal objections by 1972. The GLC realised that the South Cross Route might be impractical to build, and looked instead at integrating public transport through a new park-and-ride scheme at Lewisham that would serve a new Fleet line on
12600-461: The railway and passed through Hampstead in a cut-and-cover tunnel owing to local geography, and over British Rail 's goods depot at Camden Town , where there was to be an interchange with the proposed Camden Town bypass. It again followed the North London line to the north of St Pancras and King's Cross , then ran in a tunnel through Highbury , and crossed Kingsland High Street in Dalston on
12726-524: The rest of the Ringway schemes be abandoned. The project was submitted to the Conservative government for approval and, for a short period, it appeared that the GLC had made enough concessions for the scheme to proceed. A report around this time commissioned by planning lawyer Frank Layfield showed that the GLDP was too dependent on roads for its transport plans. Because the GLC had proposed the Ringways as
12852-476: The ring road. One of the most renowned ring roads is the Vienna Ring Road ( Ringstraße ), a grand boulevard constructed in the mid-19th century and filled with representative buildings. Due to its unique architectural beauty and history, it has also been called the "Lord of the ring roads", and is declared by UNESCO as part of Vienna's World Heritage Site . Major European cities that are served by
12978-623: The road in " London's Burning ", and the group's Joe Strummer described their music as "the sound of the Westway". The group's documentary Westway to the World is named after the road. Swiss post-punk group Chin Chin used the same turn of phrase for the title of their 1985 LP The Sound of the Westway. The cover for The Jam 's 1977 album This Is the Modern World was taken under the Westway. Blur 's 1993 song " For Tomorrow " mentions that
13104-412: The road viaduct would pass within 20 feet (6.1 m) of people's homes. Compulsory purchases of properties began in 1962, with an estimated 3,356 people needing to be rehoused. Many properties on the line of the route were put on short-term rental or left derelict. The local area was disrupted by the flow of heavy goods traffic moving materials to the construction site and taking spoil away. The road
13230-413: The roads would cause. Local newspapers published the intended routes, which caused an outcry among local residents living on or near them who would have their lives irreversibly disrupted. Following an increasing series of protests, the scheme was cancelled in 1973, at which point only three sections had been built. Some traffic routes originally planned for the Ringways were re-used for other road schemes in
13356-520: The route of Ringway 4 did not make a complete circuit of London. It was, instead, C-shaped. The planned route started at a junction with the M20 motorway (then also being planned) near Wrotham in Kent and ran west as motorway around the capital to Hunton Bridge near Watford. From Watford, the road was to head east until it met Ringway 3 near Navestock in Essex . Construction began on the first section of
13482-520: The route was then planned to cross the ancient woodland of Oxleas Wood and the adjacent Shepheardleas Wood to connect to the "Rochester Way Relief Road" ( A2 ) at a junction at Falconwood . Heading south from the A2, Ringway 2 would have crossed Eltham Warren Golf Course and Royal Blackheath Golf Club to reach the A20 at Mottingham where its next junction would have been constructed. Next, heading west out of
13608-541: The section in east London as the M15 , but this was not planned to refer to the entire road. Since the Ringways Plan was cancelled, most of the route has been upgraded, some of it close to motorway standard, but this has been done piecemeal. In places, the road is a six-lane dual carriageway with grade separated junctions, while other parts remain at a much lower standard. In some cases this has been because of protests;
13734-616: The south where the road could be constructed with less destruction of local communities. Starting in the London Borough of Greenwich at the southern end of the new tunnel in Thamesmead, the planned route for the new southern section of Ringway 2 would have first interchanged with the A2016 then headed south, first through Plumstead towards Plumstead Common and then, via open land, to Shooters Hill Road ( A207 ). Controversially,
13860-523: The term is the most commonly used, with "orbital" also used, but to a much lesser extent. In Europe and Australia, some ring roads, particularly longer ones of motorway standard, are known as "orbital motorways". Examples are the London Orbital (generally known as the M25; 188 km), Sydney Orbital Network (110 km) and Rome Orbital (68 km). In the United States many ring roads are called beltlines , beltways or loops , such as
13986-465: The two rings became redundant. The South Mimms to Potters Bar section (junction 23 to junction 24) was opened in 1975, temporarily designated as an A-road ( A1178 ). The remaining sections of the northern Ringway 3 were constructed over the next eleven years: the M25 motorway was completed in 1986 with the opening of the Ringway 4 to Ringway 3 linking section from Micklefield to South Mimms (junction 19 to junction 23). One part of Ringway 3 in west London
14112-479: The urban core of the city, but are not fully controlled-access and must be shared with local traffic in the Nickel Centre and Rayside-Balfour districts of the city. Most major cities in Europe are served by a ring road that circles either the inner core of their metropolitan areas or the outer borders of the city proper or both. In major transit hubs, such as the Île-de-France region surrounding Paris and
14238-524: Was a new road, the north section of which became part of the M25 from South Mimms to Swanley via the Dartford Crossing . It was intended for traffic bypassing London, and was a central government scheme outside of the remit of London County Council. The route was roughly based on the earlier "D" ring designed by Patrick Abercrombie . The southern section was never planned in detail, so a specific route does not exist. The section in west London
14364-469: Was chosen to follow the easiest path from Western Avenue to Paddington which paralleled existing railway lines. To the east, the GLC had purchased slums between Harrow Road and the Grand Union Canal for redevelopment, and the Westway was planned to run along the southern edge of this. An elevated road was cheaper to construct and required less land to be directly built on, and had worked well for previous road construction projects, such as elevated section of
14490-512: Was eventually built as The Parkway/Hayes Bypass ( A312 ). Unlike many other Ringway proposals it was favourably viewed by local residents, for it solved serious congestion problems. It was one of the few major road schemes approved by the GLC after Labour took control in 1981. Ringway 4 was more commonly known by the names "North Orbital Road" and "South Orbital Road", and was first mentioned in Bressey's report. The southern section became part of
14616-505: Was eventually built to a lower standard as the A312 . Ringway 3 was planned to link the capital's outer suburbs linking areas such as Croydon , Esher , Barnet , Waltham Cross , Chigwell and Dartford . Construction began on the first section of the motorway between South Mimms and Potters Bar in 1973 and the motorway was initially designated as the M16 motorway before its opening. While
14742-593: Was hugely ambitious, and almost immediately attracted opposition from several directions. Ringway 1 was designed to be an eight-lane elevated motorway running through the middle of many town centres such as Camden Town , Brixton and Dalston . A principal problem was the route of Ringway 2 in south London, given that the South Circular Road was largely an unimproved series of urban streets and there were fewer railway lines to follow. Parts would be built with four lanes in each direction, and in some cases there
14868-403: Was mostly constructed from pre-stressed and post-tensioned concrete, which was cast offsite and moved into position as required. Tensioning cables were then passed through conduits cast into the sections and tightened to achieve the bearing capacity necessary to carry the weight of traffic. Joints between sections were minimised in order to provide a smoother journey. The road was designed with
14994-477: Was never built. Ringway 2 took another elevated route crossing the railway by Goat House Bridge, before running in a cutting by South Norwood and Thornton Heath . It then passed under the Brighton Main Line up to a major junction with the M23 coming north from Mitcham . This area would have required extensive demolition. Taking the easiest alignment, the Ringway continued towards a junction with
15120-420: Was never well planned and did not have an exact proposed alignment. The route of the eastern section of the North Circular Road south from its junction with the M11 at South Woodford to the junction with the A13 (the "South Woodford to Barking Relief Road" ) was built on the planned motorway alignment, opening in 1987. The section between South Woodford and Redbridge roundabout ( A12 junction) was, for
15246-411: Was no other plan than to destroy whatever urban streets were in the way of the new road. At Blackheath , the road would have run in a deep-bored tunnel to avoid any impact on the local area, at an estimated cost of £38 million. However, until around 1967, the opposition was more towards specific proposals instead of the concept of Ringways generally. The report Motorways in London , published in 1969 by
15372-404: Was planned and constructed in an era before environmental impacts were routinely considered, and it caused controversy at the time for the effects it and the vehicles it carried had upon the local community and the environment. At the opening ceremony, Heseltine was jeered by protesters armed with placards. A group of squatters moved into vacant houses on Freston Road near to those demolished for
15498-535: Was published by Penguin Books and sold 18,000 copies. Several key ideas in the report would later be perceived as being correct as road protesting grew from the 1980s onward. The London Traffic Survey was published the following year, and concluded that the Ringways should be built in order to cater for future network traffic, instead of Traffic in Towns which said if a road was not built, there would be no demand along that route anyway. The 1960s plans were developed over
15624-627: Was redesignated as the M26 . Except for a deviation from the original plan around Leatherhead, the current M26 and the M25 between junctions 5 and 19 mostly follow the planned Ringway 4 route. One short section of the dual-carriageway portion of Ringway 4 was constructed in Hoddesdon linking the town to the A10 . In the central London area, only the East Cross Route and part of the West Cross Route of Ringway 1 were constructed together with
15750-547: Was set in a junction between motorways, one of which is the Westway. In the novel, the protagonist has an accident on the road while speeding and is consequently stranded in waste ground between motorways with nobody able to help. The 1997 murder mystery A Certain Justice by P. D. James was set in an area being demolished for the Westway, referring to houses "rising in great choking clouds of ochre dust". Chris Petit 's 1979 road movie Radio On includes several shots of
15876-638: Was transferred from the Highways Agency to the Greater London Authority . In 2013, the Mayor of London , Boris Johnson , announced parts of the Westway would be reconstructed to allow a separated cycleway to be built on it. The space required would be provided by reducing vehicle capacity. These plans were abandoned in 2016. The Westway is referred to in J. G. Ballard 's 1973 novel Crash . The following year's Concrete Island
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