Smallest orbital motorway (or equivalent)

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Peter350
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Smallest orbital motorway (or equivalent)

Post by Peter350 »

I have been wondering what the shortest distance is where you can complete a full circuit entirely on controlled access highways, therefore creating the smallest orbital motorway. In the UK, I believe this honour goes to the M60 ring around Manchester. There are smaller motorway boxes elsewhere in the country, such as the M1/M62/M621 around southern Leeds, and the M8/M73/M74 around Glasgow, however these don’t count as the sliproad arrangements do not allow you to complete a full circuit without diverting onto an all-purpose road.

As there are other countries in the world with much denser motorway networks than the UK, I believe there are likely to be smaller controlled access orbital highways within them. If you know of any, please post them here!
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zapalniczka
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Re: Smallest orbital motorway (or equivalent)

Post by zapalniczka »

The A4053 around Coventry may not be a motorway but I would throw that into the mix. At only 2.25 miles, it's epic.
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c2R
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Re: Smallest orbital motorway (or equivalent)

Post by c2R »

My favourite, although probably not the shortest is the terrifying ring motorway around Charleroi:

https://www.google.com/maps/@50.4041511 ... 312!8i6656


A single direction only, 5.1km, and mostly elevated...
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Re: Smallest orbital motorway (or equivalent)

Post by nowster »

c2R wrote: Wed Sep 25, 2019 15:01 My favourite, although probably not the shortest is the terrifying ring motorway around Charleroi:

A single direction only, 5.1km, and mostly elevated...
Would it count as the largest roundabout?
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Re: Smallest orbital motorway (or equivalent)

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nowster wrote: Wed Sep 25, 2019 15:05
c2R wrote: Wed Sep 25, 2019 15:01 My favourite, although probably not the shortest is the terrifying ring motorway around Charleroi:

A single direction only, 5.1km, and mostly elevated...
Would it count as the largest roundabout?
It might do - any contenders for a circulatory carriageway of greater than 5.1km - excluding the Nurburgring and similarly long race circuits...
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Re: Smallest orbital motorway (or equivalent)

Post by Alderpoint »

zapalniczka wrote: Wed Sep 25, 2019 12:47 The A4053 around Coventry may not be a motorway but I would throw that into the mix. At only 2.25 miles, it's epic.
And it's fully grade separated (apart from one junction) and I've not seen any nutter cyclists on it for a while - although I admit to doing so between two of the junctions back in my student days.
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Re: Smallest orbital motorway (or equivalent)

Post by Al__S »

At the other extreme, if it is ever completed the Paris Grand Contourement would be over 1000km in length. A ring around London at a similar distance would run along the south coast, go via Bristol, Birmingham and Kings Lynn and possibly have a bridge from Frinton to Margate (I'm sure the current prime minister would be well up for this)- though Iceland's Route 1, whilst not motorway-ish standard throughout, is longer and takes in the entire nation
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Re: Smallest orbital motorway (or equivalent)

Post by Owain »

Peter350 wrote: Wed Sep 25, 2019 12:31 I have been wondering what the shortest distance is where you can complete a full circuit entirely on controlled access highways, therefore creating the smallest orbital motorway. In the UK, I believe this honour goes to the M60 ring around Manchester. There are smaller motorway boxes elsewhere in the country, such as the M1/M62/M621 around southern Leeds, and the M8/M73/M74 around Glasgow, however these don’t count as the sliproad arrangements do not allow you to complete a full circuit without diverting onto an all-purpose road.
The M1-M62-M621 doesn't really count as a motorway box in the way the M5-M6-M42 and M8-M73-M74 both do, and it certainly cannot be considered an orbital motorway, because Leeds is not surrounded by it!

What it is, is a crossroads between the M1 and the M62, with a Leeds access road attached in the form of the M621.
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Re: Smallest orbital motorway (or equivalent)

Post by exiled »

c2R wrote: Wed Sep 25, 2019 15:11
nowster wrote: Wed Sep 25, 2019 15:05
c2R wrote: Wed Sep 25, 2019 15:01 My favourite, although probably not the shortest is the terrifying ring motorway around Charleroi:

A single direction only, 5.1km, and mostly elevated...
Would it count as the largest roundabout?
It might do - any contenders for a circulatory carriageway of greater than 5.1km - excluding the Nurburgring and similarly long race circuits...
Ah Belgian motorways and express ways, terror incognita.
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Re: Smallest orbital motorway (or equivalent)

Post by Bryn666 »

Belgium has quite a penchant for ring roads but very few are actual motorway standard.

Weirdest has to be R4 around Gent which on a map looks like an enormous gentleman sausage.
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Re: Smallest orbital motorway (or equivalent)

Post by Owain »

Bryn666 wrote: Sun Oct 13, 2019 12:39 Belgium has quite a penchant for ring roads but very few are actual motorway standard.

Weirdest has to be R4 around Gent which on a map looks like an enormous gentleman sausage.
I'd never noticed that one half has a canal in the central reservation! Crazy, but very cool!!
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Re: Smallest orbital motorway (or equivalent)

Post by c2R »

Bryn666 wrote: Sun Oct 13, 2019 12:39 Belgium has quite a penchant for ring roads but very few are actual motorway standard.

Weirdest has to be R4 around Gent which on a map looks like an enormous gentleman sausage.

The Ghent one is even weirder when you consider that it doesn't take the obvious bypass of Zelzate and multiplex with the E34, but instead ploughs on a longer route into the town centre, where it crosses the canal on an S2 bridge...
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