Broad Street Junction

The original junction design

Broad Street Junction is a major junction on the Wolverhampton Inner Ring Road, where it meets traffic from the northeast of the city via A4124.

The original junction design was for a roundabout, with grade separation between A4150 to the south, and via a new dual carriageway route roughly along the line of Herbert Street that would have met A449 at Elephant & Castle, forming an eastern bypass of the city centre, whilst still allowing rotational traffic.

ADS for local destinations, northbound on A4150

However, as constructed it became a light-controlled crossroads that, in common with all the junctions along A4150, had reserved space for grade-separation for rotational traffic. Space for the junction is compromised due to the West Coast Mainline and the Birmingham Canal immediately to the east, and the listed Chubb Building to the west.

Looking east across the junction

In the mid-1980s, the City Council had plans to replace this junction with a standard roundabout layout that still allowed for future grade-separation, but when the junction upgrade took place in the mid-1990s, a lesser approach was taken. The junction was remodelled as a form of longabout, with the straight-through path from Broad Street to the west of the junction and Wednesfield Road to the east of the junction removed. New loops were added to the north and south of the junction in order to change it into a functional roundabout, and a direct access road for northbound traffic from the Inner Ring Road wishing to head east on A4124 added. The longabout remained light-controlled.

In 2011, further changes were carried out in connection with the construction of a new bus station to the southwest of the junction, that required modifications to the southern side of the longabout in order to allow for buses to access a new bus-only clockwise carriageway to reach the new bus station.