B4135

Heath Street, Smethwick

The B4135 is a short route starting and ending on the A457. It is also split in two by that road (originally it was not) and resumes shortly afterwards.

The route starts on Tollhouse Way, a dual carriageway built in the 1980s to bypass Smethwick High Street. Prior to this the B4135 was around 50 metres longer when it actually started on the High Street (now numbered B4169). From here the road heads northeast along Rolfe Street and passes through an area of light industry and warehouses. After becoming Rabone Lane the B4135 TOTSOs where it meets the B4136, turning right into Soho Street. This feeds into Soho Way where the B4135 designation finishes for a few hundred metres.

After following the A457, the B4135 re-emerges at a roundabout. This section starts in an industrial area along Cranford Street and is heavily used by locals as an alternative to the A457 to the extent that there can be a queue approaching the Soho Way roundabout in the westbound direction. After passing a speed camera the road turns left round a sharp bend and under the covered bridge of a former GKN factory. After this the road leaves Smethwick and enters Birmingham. The character of the road changes from a tired industrial area to pleasant 1980s housing and the road name also changes from Cranford Street to Heath Street. After crossing the A4040 at a set of traffic lights the road continues in a straight line towards the A457 at Dudley Road, where the B4135 formerly terminated.

More recently, the B4135 has been granted a further section more in towards central Birmingham. Formerly, the A457 continued in to the centre of Birmingham to terminate on the former Inner Ring Road, but today traffic is diverted via the A4540, the former Middle Ring Road. As part of this requirement, the section of A457 between the two roads has been downgraded to part of the B4135.