Castle Farm Interchange
Castle Farm Interchange | |||
Location Map ( geo) | |||
| |||
Location | |||
Stafford Park | |||
County | |||
Shropshire | |||
Highway Authority | |||
National Highways | |||
Junction Type | |||
Roundabout interchange | |||
Roads Joined | |||
M54, A464, A4640 | |||
Junctions related to the A464 | |||
Junctions related to the A4640 | |||
Castle Farm Interchange is a roundabout interchange located at junction 4 of M54, where it meets the A464 and A4640 to the east of Telford, Shropshire.
Telford services is located a short distance to the southeast along A464.
History
Initial proposals for the M54 were made in 1970 for a junction called Knowlbank Interchange. This would have been located immediately to the east of the site of the current junction. The junction was intended to form a freeflowing connection between the M54 and the A464 towards Telford as this would be the main route into the new town. A large oval roundabout would cater for the other movements. Plans for Telford at the time also show this junction layout.
A year later in 1971 the design had changed to this layout which appears in all proposals for Telford and the M54 from then on. The improvements being the removal of the right hand entry onto the M54 eastbound and the requirement for one less bridge. A slightly altered layout was produced for the alternative northern route for the M54. The northern route was abandoned in 1973 when the 1971 design for the southern route was confirmed as the layout to be built by the Department of the Environment. All that remains is for construction of the motorway to begin or so it seems.
Proposals for Telford were scaled back in the mid-1970s with the result being the requirement for a simpler road network. The junction was redesigned again and this time the freeflow link onto the A464 was done away with. The junction was to move slightly to the west and its name changed to Castle Farm Interchange reflecting the new location. The junction opened in 1983 along with this stretch of M54, although the A4640 to the north was not added until the early 1990s. The roundabout became signal-controlled in 2004 on the entrances from M54 only, which solved issues with rotational speeds being too high to allow traffic to join the roundabout leading to tailbacks along all approaches.
In October 2016, further work was started on the roundabout, with all approaches apart from Priorslee Road being signalised and several approaches being widened. This work was completed in Spring 2017.
Routes
Route | To | Notes |
Telford, The Princess Royal Hospital Telford | ||
Birmingham, Wolverhampton, (M6) | ||
Bridgnorth (A442), Telford town centre | ||
Shifnal | 7.5Ton weight limit 11pm-7am | |
Donnington, Priorslee, Telford Athletics Stadium, The Telford University Campus | ||
now A4640 | ||
Telford services |