Britain’s most complex motorway junctions

[owen b]

There's an interesting new post on the Ordnance Survey blog here : https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/blog/2 ... more-26232
"....here at Ordnance Survey, we’ve spent many hours over the years thinking about the interwoven laces of motorway junctions. Not from the perspective of a driver, but that of a cartographer....." and so it goes on.

The post goes on to describe the work which the OS put into creating a poster of what they claim to be Britain's 40 most cartographically complex motorway junctions here : https://www.flickr.com/photos/ordnances ... 296646737/
They tag two junctions as M90 / A912, one of which appears to be a mislabelling. It's not immediately obvious to me which junction is being mapped.

[A42_Sparks]

Ray Hall as one of the 40 most complex junctions? Isn't it just an elongated directional T?

[Johnathan404]

They tag two junctions as M90 / A912, one of which appears to be a mislabelling. It's not immediately obvious to me which junction is being mapped.

The first one is the real one.

The second one appears to be M60/A5103

Ray Hall as one of the 40 most complex junctions? Isn't it just an elongated directional T?

A few of them are simple T's and double forks. Either they were short of entries (likely), or their methodology included other roads in the area in their survey. M40/M42 must have just missed out.

Leaving out the A38 from M4/M5 and the A6 from M6/M55 seems a bit unfair when so many others have inter-linked junctions counted as one.

I like the two M8 entries at the end, though.

[owen b]

They tag two junctions as M90 / A912, one of which appears to be a mislabelling. It's not immediately obvious to me which junction is being mapped.

The first one is the real one.

The second one appears to be M60/A5103

Good spot . As you found the correct answer, maybe you could get the honours and let the OS know in the comments section of their blog? Otherwise I might be inclined to myself.

[Johnathan404]

Go for it. Comment sections are places I tend not to frequent, for the good of my health!

[owen b]

Go for it. Comment sections are places I tend not to frequent, for the good of my health!

Ok, will do .

[Stevie D]

I got pretty much all of them apart from a couple of simple and common junctions.

From a cartographic point of view, I would have thought that Loversall of Lofthouse, where you have an unrelated road threaded through the junction, would be up there in the top 40.

[Marzo]

There appear to be two junctions near Bristol marked on the index map. One is obviously the M4/M5 interchange. The other appears to be M5/M49/A4/A403, but I can't see that anywhere on the poster or recognise anything that might have been mis-identified.

[Robert Kilcoyne]

Ray Hall as one of the 40 most complex junctions? Isn't it just an elongated directional T?

A few of them are simple T's and double forks. Either they were short of entries (likely), or their methodology included other roads in the area in their survey. M40/M42 must have just missed out.

Leaving out the A38 from M4/M5 and the A6 from M6/M55 seems a bit unfair when so many others have inter-linked junctions counted as one.

I like the two M8 entries at the end, though.

I would have excluded the M6/M5 junction and replaced it with M62 Junction 27 at Gildersome, which involves two motorways and two A roads.

I would have included the M6/M56 Lymm interchange diagram to include the A50 junction further north, as it is necessary to leave the northbound M6 mainline before the M56 turnoff in order to exit for the A50. The M6/M65 Bamber Bridge Interchange should also include the A6 roundabout a few hundred yards further north as traffic wishing to join the A6 from the northbound M6 has to navigate the roundabout under the M65 first while traffic heading south on the M6 would need to go round the roundabout with the A6 before reaching the roundabout with the M65.

[Big L]

M6 j7 is far more 'complicated' than j8.

[ais523]

I'd have expected Girton to be included. (It's currently being rebuilt, but both the old and new designs are complex enough; the new one has the benefit of including two motorways.)

[Ben302]

Amazed M2 J1 isn't mentioned. It evolved from a simple freeflowing fork to a fork Trumpet Hybrid