Old USGS imagery showing former road layouts

[Berk]

It does appear so, yes. Looks like they slewed the northbound carriageway a little to the south.

[RJDG14]

It does appear so, yes. Looks like they slewed the northbound carriageway a little to the south.

There was previously a railway line on roughly the alignment of the modern A34. I'd imagine it closed during the early-mid 1960s, which was when quite a lot of less major railway lines ceased operation.

[tom66]

Which particular data set on the USGS website are you getting these images from?

[wrinkly]

The relative positions of the present A34/A33 junction, the original Winchester bypass and the former railway line can be checked on SABRE Maps using the 1950s 1:25000 map (under "OS one-inch maps") and the fader to the modern map. There's also a good article on the Winchester Bypass on the Wiki.

[RJDG14]

Which particular data set on the USGS website are you getting these images from?

Mostly the "Declass 3" one, which consists of high resolution KH9 satellite imagery taken mostly during the 1970s. As I said earlier, only a small proportion of imagery in the dataset is currently available to download on demand because many of the negatives haven't been digitised at a high resolution, but these ones were available.

The two Northern Irish ones were sourced from the Declass 2 dataset, which consists mostly of lower resolution imagery.

There looks to be a small amount of downloadable Declass 3 KH9 imagery from 1982 of southern Scotland, but there is a lot of cloud cover so I don't really think it's worth me downloading for analysis.

[JackieRoads]

Which particular data set on the USGS website are you getting these images from?

Mostly the "Declass 3" one, which consists of high resolution KH9 satellite imagery taken mostly during the 1970s. As I said earlier, only a small proportion of imagery in the dataset is currently available to download on demand because many of the negatives haven't been digitised at a high resolution, but these ones were available.

The two Northern Irish ones were sourced from the Declass 2 dataset, which consists mostly of lower resolution imagery.

There looks to be a small amount of downloadable Declass 3 KH9 imagery from 1982 of southern Scotland, but there is a lot of cloud cover so I don't really think it's worth me downloading for analysis.

Can I request one thing? The request is St Georges Interchange or M5 J21. It should have opened around that time.

[RJDG14]

I did say that there was currently no downloadable imagery north of Merseyside and The Wash, however I have stumbled upon a lower resolution Declass 2 image from 1977 featuring much of the Humberside and eastern Yorkshire area, and thought it would be interesting to share a snippet from it featuring the long gone A18(M) as seen during the construction of the modern M180:

[RJDG14]

Which particular data set on the USGS website are you getting these images from?

Mostly the "Declass 3" one, which consists of high resolution KH9 satellite imagery taken mostly during the 1970s. As I said earlier, only a small proportion of imagery in the dataset is currently available to download on demand because many of the negatives haven't been digitised at a high resolution, but these ones were available.

The two Northern Irish ones were sourced from the Declass 2 dataset, which consists mostly of lower resolution imagery.

There looks to be a small amount of downloadable Declass 3 KH9 imagery from 1982 of southern Scotland, but there is a lot of cloud cover so I don't really think it's worth me downloading for analysis.

Can I request one thing? The request is St Georges Interchange or M5 J21. It should have opened around that time.

Here we are. It looked much the same as now (aside from the road heading into Weston Super Mare not being fully dualled) but did look fairly new:



By the way, what's up with that rather weird split lane layout on what I assume to be the A370? It looks like some sort of future road provision proofing.

From what I can tell based on the 1973 imagery, most of the M5 was completed or in the final stages of completion by 1973 with the exception of the Avonmouth Bridge which was in the earlier stages of construction.

[KeithW]

Mostly the "Declass 3" one, which consists of high resolution KH9 satellite imagery taken mostly during the 1970s. As I said earlier, only a small proportion of imagery in the dataset is currently available to download on demand because many of the negatives haven't been digitised at a high resolution, but these ones were available.

The two Northern Irish ones were sourced from the Declass 2 dataset, which consists mostly of lower resolution imagery.

There looks to be a small amount of downloadable Declass 3 KH9 imagery from 1982 of southern Scotland, but there is a lot of cloud cover so I don't really think it's worth me downloading for analysis.

Can I request one thing? The request is St Georges Interchange or M5 J21. It should have opened around that time.

Here we are. It looked much the same as now (aside from the road heading into Weston Super Mare not being fully dualled) but did look fairly new:



By the way, what's up with that rather weird split lane layout on what I assume to be the A370? It looks like some sort of future road provision proofing.

From what I can tell based on the 1973 imagery, most of the M5 was completed or in the final stages of completion by 1973 with the exception of the Avonmouth Bridge which was in the earlier stages of construction.

I will omit the traditional 'sheesh' but its in the wiki

[quote=''https://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/wiki/ind ... title=A370]
Section 2: Weston-super-Mare – East Brent
From one GSJ, the A370 quickly reaches another, just off the motorway junction. The A370 used to turn off here, over a future proofed bridge and run through Worle on what is now the B3440 (a duplicated number from Devon!), but a new dual carriageway known as "Somerset Avenue" now keeps traffic out of the built-up area, with roundabouts providing access to local roads, the A371, and the absurd A3033 - a ridiculously short road whose only purpose is to connect the A370 to itself. The new section of road terminates at Tescos, after crossing the railway and just short of the sea front. A loop round the town hall leads onto the beach lawns, where the A370 abruptly turns left and follows the front, losing primary status once more.
[/quote]

[RJDG14]

This is the M32 between J2 and J3 under construction in 1973:

[KeithW]

Mostly the "Declass 3" one, which consists of high resolution KH9 satellite imagery taken mostly during the 1970s. As I said earlier, only a small proportion of imagery in the dataset is currently available to download on demand because many of the negatives haven't been digitised at a high resolution, but these ones were available.

The two Northern Irish ones were sourced from the Declass 2 dataset, which consists mostly of lower resolution imagery.

There looks to be a small amount of downloadable Declass 3 KH9 imagery from 1982 of southern Scotland, but there is a lot of cloud cover so I don't really think it's worth me downloading for analysis.

Can I request one thing? The request is St Georges Interchange or M5 J21. It should have opened around that time.

Here we are. It looked much the same as now (aside from the road heading into Weston Super Mare not being fully dualled) but did look fairly new:



By the way, what's up with that rather weird split lane layout on what I assume to be the A370? It looks like some sort of future road provision proofing.

From what I can tell based on the 1973 imagery, most of the M5 was completed or in the final stages of completion by 1973 with the exception of the Avonmouth Bridge which was in the earlier stages of construction.

I will omit the traditional 'sheesh' but its in the wiki

[quote=''https://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/wiki/ind ... title=A370]
Section 2: Weston-super-Mare – East Brent
From one GSJ, the A370 quickly reaches another, just off the motorway junction. The A370 used to turn off here, over a future proofed bridge and run through Worle on what is now the B3440 (a duplicated number from Devon!), but a new dual carriageway known as "Somerset Avenue" now keeps traffic out of the built-up area, with roundabouts providing access to local roads, the A371, and the absurd A3033 - a ridiculously short road whose only purpose is to connect the A370 to itself. The new section of road terminates at Tescos, after crossing the railway and just short of the sea front. A loop round the town hall leads onto the beach lawns, where the A370 abruptly turns left and follows the front, losing primary status once more.
[/quote]

It caught me by surprise about 5 years ago as I hadn't been into Weston since the mid 1970's, I was trying to get to the helicopter museum.

[zapalniczka]

I don't suppose they have the area that became M27 / M275 Junction 12? Would be interesting to see a 1973 view of that.

[JackieRoads]

Mostly the "Declass 3" one, which consists of high resolution KH9 satellite imagery taken mostly during the 1970s. As I said earlier, only a small proportion of imagery in the dataset is currently available to download on demand because many of the negatives haven't been digitised at a high resolution, but these ones were available.

The two Northern Irish ones were sourced from the Declass 2 dataset, which consists mostly of lower resolution imagery.

There looks to be a small amount of downloadable Declass 3 KH9 imagery from 1982 of southern Scotland, but there is a lot of cloud cover so I don't really think it's worth me downloading for analysis.

Can I request one thing? The request is St Georges Interchange or M5 J21. It should have opened around that time.

Here we are. It looked much the same as now (aside from the road heading into Weston Super Mare not being fully dualled) but did look fairly new:



By the way, what's up with that rather weird split lane layout on what I assume to be the A370? It looks like some sort of future road provision proofing.

From what I can tell based on the 1973 imagery, most of the M5 was completed or in the final stages of completion by 1973 with the exception of the Avonmouth Bridge which was in the earlier stages of construction.

Indeed it was. According to the wiki page of the interchange, the A370 was dualled from the motorway into the town centre, meaning I think there were new roundabouts built all the way, into the retail park area. And it's quite interesting seeing all of this.

[Chris Bertram]

This is the M32 between J2 and J3 under construction in 1973:

I see Eastville stadium there, the former home of Bristol Rovers FC, now demolished. The nearby gasworks gave the team the unofficial nickname of "The Gas" with fans known as "Gasheads" (the official nickname is "The Pirates", but where's the fun in that?). Rovers left the stadium and spent some years playing in Bath as the tenants of Bath City FC, but now play at the Memorial Stadium, the former home of Bristol RFC, who ironically now share Ashton Gate stadium with Bristol City FC.

[Steven]

Sheesh, doesn't anyone read PM any more?

The A370 split and the M5 junction design is for the Weston-super-Mare Spur.

[JackieRoads]

Sheesh, doesn't anyone read PM any more?

The A370 split and the M5 junction design is for the Weston-super-Mare Spur.

Which wasn't eventually built.

[RJDG14]

Sheesh, doesn't anyone read PM any more?

The A370 split and the M5 junction design is for the Weston-super-Mare Spur.

Which wasn't eventually built.

The modern A370 I believe does use the washed up remains of the Weston-Super-Mare Spur, at least as far as this provisional layout is concerned. Likewise the Long Ashton Bypass is based on the washed up remains of the South Bristol Spur.

[GillsPeter]

How are you able to get such detailed imagery close in? I've been trying to download the files, but they blur when I start to zoom in.

[JackieRoads]

Speaking of which, should we bring this back so we can see some more old layouts in old images? It's been 11 days.

[ForestChav]

Speaking of which, should we bring this back so we can see some more old layouts in old images? It's been 11 days.

Bring what back? All RJDG14 did was download something the USGS have made public, anyone can do it?