Walsall

This article is about the town in historic Staffordshire.
For the Highway Authority of the same name, based around the town, see Walsall Council.

Walsall is a town in the Traditional County of Staffordshire and is part of the West Midlands conurbation. It lies to the east of Wolverhampton and to the northwest of Birmingham. It is a traditional centre of the leather industry.

It forms a focus for the road system in the north-east of the Black Country, and features an excellent example of an early 20th century bypass, the A4148 Broadway, which was constructed in the late 1920s.

In 1972 proposals were made to divert the A461 around the north west of the town centre with provision for a future extension towards Rushall. This would have been a high capacity road with grade separated junctions. Like many similar projects around the country which were planned at the time this came to nothing. In the following decades the completion of the A4148 ring road was built instead with the final section opening in 2009.

1972 proposals

Highways Management

Roads within the town (with the exception of the M6 which as a Trunk road is managed by National Highways) are maintained by Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council.

Routes

Several routes run through the Walsall area.

Route	To	Notes
M6	The NORTH WEST, Stafford, Telford (M54)
M6	The SOUTH, Birmingham (M5)
A34	Birmingham, Great Barr
A34	Cannock
A454	Wolverhampton
A461	Dudley
A461	Lichfield, Brownhills (A452)
A4148	Ring Road
A454	Aldridge
A4031	West Bromwich
A4038	Darlaston
B4151	Sutton Coldfield, Aldridge, Barr Beacon (B4154)
B4210	Leamore, Bloxwich
B4464	Willenhall
A455	Birmingham	now A34
A455	Cannock	now A34
B4430	Pleck
B4456	Ring Road	now A4148