Toyota Island

The Toyota Island is the interchange between the A38 and A50, also home to Derby with Burton Services. It is junction 4 of the A50.

As the name suggests it also gives access to the Toyota factory. A curious feature is that the bridges over and under the A38 appear to be designed to allow the addition of a third lane southbound but not northbound. There is a historical explanation for why this should be true of the northernmost bridge but not the others.

History

The A50 at the Toyota Island

The junction was built in two stages a few years apart. The first stage, before the A50 got anywhere near, was a trumpet to give access from the A38 to the Toyota works. This stage was known as the Burnaston Interim Junction and seems to have been approved quickly to encourage Toyota to invest in the site. The bridge of the trumpet later became the northernmost of the five bridges of the completed junction.

The A50 was publicly referred to as the A564 when the junction was being planned and constructed but became A50 on completion.

Historically there was an at-grade crossroads between the A38, B5008 and an unclassified road near the present site of the southernmost bridge. There was also a T-junction with another minor road near the north end of the present junction site. At some stage, either when the A38 was dualled or later, these became left-in-left-out junctions. Both minor roads headed north-west and both were permanently closed to build the Interim Junction. The LILO junction with the B5008 remained until work started on the final junction, when the B5008 was closed for the duration of the works.

Routes

Route	To	Notes
A38	Birmingham, Burton
A38	(M1 North), Derby
A50	Uttoxeter, Stoke-on-Trent
A50	(M1 South), Nottingham, East Midlands Airport
B5008	Willington, Repton
	Toyota
A564	(M6 North), Uttoxeter, Stoke-on-Trent
A564	(M1 South), Nottingham, East Midlands Airport (M42)
M64	(M6 North), Uttoxeter, Stoke-on-Trent
M64	(M1 South), Nottingham, East Midlands Airport, Tamworth (M42)