Junctions that are Incomplete / that left space for a flyover

The study of British and Irish roads - their construction, numbering, history, mapping, past and future official roads proposals and general roads musings.

There is a separate forum for Street Furniture (traffic lights, street lights, road signs etc).

Registered users get access to other forums including discussions about other forms of transport, driving, fantasy roads and wishlists, and roads quizzes.

Moderator: Site Management Team

OliverH
Member
Posts: 349
Joined: Wed Mar 24, 2021 10:52
Location: West Yorkshire

Junctions that are Incomplete / that left space for a flyover

Post by OliverH »

A320Driver
Member
Posts: 448
Joined: Fri Jun 24, 2005 19:11
Location: Leatherhead

Re: Junctions that are Incomplete / that left space for a flyover

Post by A320Driver »

First one that springs to mind is Podimore on the A303. Also plenty of examples across ‘new towns’ e.g. Skelmersdale.
I’m sure there are dozens more
Formerly ‘guvvaA303’
User avatar
sydneynick
Member
Posts: 1306
Joined: Mon Apr 17, 2006 11:07
Location: Sydney
Contact:

Re: Junctions that are Incomplete / that left space for a flyover

Post by sydneynick »

One that even I know about is the northern end of the M23.
I can always tell if politicians are lying. Their lips move.
BigBazz
Member
Posts: 98
Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2013 17:02

Re: Junctions that are Incomplete / that left space for a flyover

Post by BigBazz »

Obligatory mention of what should have been M1 Junction 3, but never progressed beyond forming the access to London Gateway Services: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.63496 ... a=!3m1!1e3

Staples Corner, where the M1 was supposed to continue further into London: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.57314 ... a=!3m1!1e3

And the junction for Hoddesdon on the A10, which should have been an interchange with Ringway 4: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.76493 ... a=!3m1!1e3
User avatar
M4Simon
Elected Committee Member
Posts: 10121
Joined: Sun Mar 17, 2002 22:35
Location: WGC, Herts
Contact:

Re: Junctions that are Incomplete / that left space for a flyover

Post by M4Simon »

Where the A627(M) crosses the M62 - https://goo.gl/maps/PVuFULL15bxK96cy6

Stansted Airport (strictly an underpass not a flyover) - https://goo.gl/maps/xyBMPvjQwHySgar98 The A120 junction immediately southwest was also originally built without a flyover, but the flyover that was built (carrying the airport exit route over the A120) is not the one originally planned, which would have carried the eastbound A120 over the airport access road, with the airport road being the main line through the junction.

Simon
Did you know there's more to SABRE than just the Forums?
Add your roads knowledge to the SABRE Wiki today!
Have you browsed SABRE Maps recently? Try getting involved!

Please contact me if you want to know more
User avatar
Steven
SABRE Maps Coordinator
Posts: 19170
Joined: Tue Feb 12, 2002 20:39
Location: Wolverhampton, Staffordshire
Contact:

Re: Junctions that are Incomplete / that left space for a flyover

Post by Steven »

The entire A4150, with every junction along it.
Steven
Motorway Historian

Founder Member, SABRE ex-Presidents' Corner

Add your roads knowledge to the SABRE Wiki today!
Have you browsed SABRE Maps recently? Try getting involved!


From the SABRE Wiki: A4150 :


The A4150 (also known as the Wolverhampton Inner Ring Road) forms a loop of the city centre of just over two miles, meeting the vast majority of the radial routes heading into the city centre.

It is entirely dual carriageway throughout its length, and the individual sections (except one) are named after nearby churches. The number A4150 does not appear on any signs throughout its length, and indeed is only used at the nearby roundabout junction between Waterloo Road

... Read More
User avatar
KeithW
Member
Posts: 19205
Joined: Thu Dec 04, 2014 13:25
Location: Marton-In-Cleveland North Yorks

Re: Junctions that are Incomplete / that left space for a flyover

Post by KeithW »

The A174 was expected to gain a flyover over the A19 when it was extended to the east but it never happened. When an extension was finally built it was as a rather more modest access road leading to Ingleby Barwick but the remnants of the earthworks for the expected flyover are still there.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@54.52889 ... 6656?hl=en
User avatar
ForestChav
SABRE Developer
Posts: 11081
Joined: Sat Sep 24, 2005 00:00
Location: Nottingham (Bronx of the Midlands)
Contact:

Re: Junctions that are Incomplete / that left space for a flyover

Post by ForestChav »

Another obvious one - or two depending how you look at it - is at King's Lynn, the first still doesn't have a flyover of any sort, where the A17 ends on the A47, the second does now have a S2 flyover across the main island at the Hardwick roundabout, but isn't the originally planned presumably D2 flyover into the A47, and also ends up at a smaller roundabout to take the roads from the main one.

No-one's mentioned the incomplete junction on the M53 yet either where it used to change to the M531.
C, E flat and G go into a bar. The barman says "sorry, we don't serve minors". So E flat walks off, leaving C and G to share an open fifth between them.

Never argue with an idiot. They will bring you down to their level and beat you with experience.
WHBM
Member
Posts: 9707
Joined: Thu Nov 30, 2006 18:01
Location: London

Re: Junctions that are Incomplete / that left space for a flyover

Post by WHBM »

Large number of stubs all along the M8 through Glasgow allowing for elements of the Glasgow Highway Plan that didn't come to fruition.

For me there are two definitions. "Future proofed" is where there is just space provision, commonly grassed over, between or besides the carriageway. "Stubs" are where there is actual road surfaced provision for a turnoff. Sometimes they are still there because a different alignment was done, more commonly because nothing was built at all. Future proofing/stubs have a high likelihood, it now transpires, of never being used, which makes the associated cost, even of just land purchase, wasted.

Some stubs were sufficiently substantially built that they have structures etc that are never used. The M53 at Hooton, Wirral, where it was once to turn towards Wales, has now had the bridge removed, but still slaloms under where it was. And then there's the "ski jumps" on the M8 at West Street in Glasgow, or the viaducts over nothing at the bottom of the M11 in East London.

Incomplete structures and routes always seem to have a certain fascination. The London Underground has a considerable number around the network as well.
MikeB55
New Member
Posts: 9
Joined: Thu Jun 17, 2021 13:49
Location: Cambridge

Re: Junctions that are Incomplete / that left space for a flyover

Post by MikeB55 »

There is one junction I know well which had provision for a flyover for many years, but the flyover wasn't added until 2015.

It is Penn Inn, just outside Newton Abbot on the A380.

Does anyone know when the Kingsteignton/Newton Abbot bypass was originally built?
kiran_mk2
Member
Posts: 83
Joined: Mon Nov 05, 2018 19:58

Re: Junctions that are Incomplete / that left space for a flyover

Post by kiran_mk2 »

A38 / A442 on the Droitwich ring road was the classic one for me having grown up in the area
User avatar
skiddaw05
Member
Posts: 2036
Joined: Thu Nov 30, 2006 21:33
Location: Norwich

Re: Junctions that are Incomplete / that left space for a flyover

Post by skiddaw05 »

Pullover roundabout, King's Lynn. Built in the 70s but the had to delay the flyover to give time for the earth banks to settle. I wonder if they are ready now?

(And as an aside note the strange number-free direction sign)
WHBM
Member
Posts: 9707
Joined: Thu Nov 30, 2006 18:01
Location: London

Re: Junctions that are Incomplete / that left space for a flyover

Post by WHBM »

Those residual stubs are the opposite. Those flyovers were actually built in the late 1960s, but demolished 30 years later, for a reason I can't see. I believe there was some turf war over their maintenance between different authorities.
Peter Freeman
Member
Posts: 1390
Joined: Thu Aug 30, 2012 07:52
Location: Exits 9 & 10, M1 East, Melbourne, Australia

Re: Junctions that are Incomplete / that left space for a flyover

Post by Peter Freeman »

WHBM wrote: Fri Sep 24, 2021 09:37
For me there are two definitions. "Future proofed" is where there is just space provision, commonly grassed over, between or besides the carriageway. "Stubs" are where there is actual road surfaced provision for a turnoff.
Sometimes referred to as 'passive' and 'active' future-proofing.
User avatar
Chris5156
Deputy Treasurer
Posts: 16908
Joined: Thu Sep 06, 2001 21:50
Location: Hampshire
Contact:

Re: Junctions that are Incomplete / that left space for a flyover

Post by Chris5156 »

OliverH wrote: Thu Sep 23, 2021 22:29 here is the first: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.15674 ... a=!3m1!1e3
In which case the second is surely the matching one at the other end of the Alton bypass!
DB617
Member
Posts: 1286
Joined: Mon Dec 25, 2017 00:51
Location: Bristol

Re: Junctions that are Incomplete / that left space for a flyover

Post by DB617 »

A4232 at the eastern end of the Queens Gate/Butetown tunnel actually has a flyover stub that has now been rendered probably useless by the simple at-grade roundabout interface across the other side. Clearly the decision was made that the Cardiff ring road would never be completed as a grade separated road. Rover Way/Lamby Way roundabout also has a really, really big splay on its northern side to accommodate the future hopes for a ring road - now never to be completed as it was envisioned.
User avatar
KeithW
Member
Posts: 19205
Joined: Thu Dec 04, 2014 13:25
Location: Marton-In-Cleveland North Yorks

Re: Junctions that are Incomplete / that left space for a flyover

Post by KeithW »

There is an example of a stub on the A66/B6279 roundabout here. As I recall the intention was to extend the B6279 to Teesside Airport along the line of the old railway to the A67.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@54.53118 ... !1e3?hl=en
User avatar
Bryn666
Elected Committee Member
Posts: 35755
Joined: Thu Jun 20, 2002 20:54
Contact:

Re: Junctions that are Incomplete / that left space for a flyover

Post by Bryn666 »

https://goo.gl/maps/cQ7QMxGmifpxpSBz6

A million SABRE pounds (cash value: 1 pint) to anyone who can explain why this stub was built on the M65 as part of the 1997 extension. None of us have ever found an answer in an archive and there's nowhere obvious (well, not without huge disruption to the roads involved back in 1997) for it to connect to.
Bryn
Terminally cynical, unimpressed, and nearly Middle Age already.
She said life was like a motorway; dull, grey, and long.

Blog - https://showmeasign.online/
X - https://twitter.com/ShowMeASignBryn
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@BrynBuck
User avatar
Bfivethousand
Member
Posts: 1387
Joined: Thu Jun 30, 2005 22:16
Location: Derbyshire

Re: Junctions that are Incomplete / that left space for a flyover

Post by Bfivethousand »

Because someone somewhere thought Junction 2 of the Coventry Ring Road could potentially be made even more complex!
16 Sodium atoms walk into a bar
followed immediately by Batman
Post Reply