Gravelly Hill Interchange
| Gravelly Hill Interchange | |
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| Country: | United Kingdom |
| Countries : | England |
| Coordinates: | 52 ° 30 '40 " N , 1 ° 51' 54" W |
| Basic data | |
| Design type: | Spaghetti knot |
| Construction year: | 1972 |
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| Aerial view of the knot | |
The Gravelly Hill Interchange , better known as Spaghetti Junction (German Spaghetti Crossing ) is an elaborate motorway junction north of the city of Birmingham in England . It was opened to traffic on May 24, 1972 and cost £ 10.8 million to build .
General
The motorway junction links the M6 motorway , the A38 (M) urban motorway (also known as the “Aston Expressway”), the A38 , A5127 and some unnumbered local roads. It covers an area of around 12 hectares, serves 18 routes and has a total length of more than four kilometers, but the M6 itself only provides one kilometer. There are 559 concrete pillars over five levels.
Construction began in 1968, along with what was then the last section of the M6, which runs from Birmingham to London. 160 houses, a factory, a bank and a block of flats had to give way to the node and a gas and three water pipes had to be diverted. At the time it opened, the structure carried around 40,000 vehicles a day; today it has to cope with around 210,000 vehicles a day.
More connections
Below the node, the Cross City Line railway meets the Chase Line railway line; in addition, the Tame Valley Canal , the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal and the Grand Union Canal meet in the area of the motorway junction at Salford Junction ; The River Rea and Hockley Brook flow into the River Tame here .
Web links
- Description of BBC on the 30th anniversary (English)
- Local links to the node (English)
- Entry of the station ITV on the 40th anniversary (English)