B4126
B4126 | ||||||||||
Location Map ( geo) | ||||||||||
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From: | Dudley Road (SP042876) | |||||||||
To: | Golden Hillock Road (SP094847) | |||||||||
Distance: | 1.2 miles (1.9 km) | |||||||||
Meets: | A4040, A457, A4540, B4124, A34, B4145 | |||||||||
Highway Authorities | ||||||||||
Traditional Counties | ||||||||||
Route outline (key) | ||||||||||
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The B4126 appears to be another duplicate, or at least is in two sections a few miles apart, both in Birmingham - there's the Icknield Port Road section linking Winson Green with the Middleway, and there's Walford Road, Sparkbrook, linking the A34 Stratford Road with the B4145 Golden Hillock Road. Why isn't it a duplicate? Because, if you start from one end and follow your nose, you will end up at the other end of the other section, so it's a multiplex. Indeed, from one end of the B4126 to the other is about four miles whilst the section of road which actually has that number is a quarter of that.
What appears to have happened is that the continuity was broken when the A4540 (Middle) ring road was built, and Highgate Road was also upgraded to Class I status (currently it may be A4167 or a spur of the A4540) to cut a corner between the Stratford Road and Belgrave Middleway. However, each end was left with the old number, so we have this slightly odd situation. The ironic thing is that the entire original section of the B4126 is now an A-road; what remains are extensions that took place later.
Original Author(s): Chris Bertram
History
The DfT Card Index from c2002 lists the B4126 as 'Birmingham - Gooch Streetspur.' At first glance this is hard to decipher, but on closer inspection, Gooch Street in the city centre is shown as a B road on OS mapping from the 1950s and 1960s, so it appears that what the listing is supposed to mean is that the B4126 is in Birmingham and includes Gooch Street as a spur.