Chronography of Road Construction (also
bridges and tunnels); key events
Page last
modified 17 March 2023
See also Road and Vehicle Technology
See
also Road Traffic
See also Road Traffic Regulations
See
also Built Environment
Click here for image showing impact of
motor car on rural roads.
Live traffic conditions, GB,
http://www.theaa.com/traffic-news/index.jsp
Live traffic conditions, GB,
http://www.trafficengland.com/
London Ringway Plan, https://www.roads.org.uk/ringways
SABRE � British Roads
Association, useful links here, https://www.sabre-roads.org.uk/society/links.php
Transport Statistics, UK, https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-transport/about/statistics
Great
Britain (London)
4 September 2017, Queen Elizabeth II opened the third Forth Bridge,exactly 53 years after the second (road)
bridge was opened by her. The cost of the new bridge was �1.35bn, as against
�11.5m (�210m in 2017 prices) for the 2nd bridge. The original road
bridge was now for
cyclists and buses only.
20 December 2016, The Eurasia Road Tunnel, under the
Bosporus, Istanbul, Turkey, opened to traffic.
9/2006,
The �smart motorway� concept was
introduced in the UK when the hard
shoulder (see 1955) was turned
into a traffic lane at peak periods on a 10 mile stretch of the M.42 near
Birmingham at peak periods, Journey times dropped by 25% and the scheme was
extended to sections of major motorways including the M.1, M.6, M.25, M 62 and
M.4. However by 2020 a series of accidents involving vehicles running into the
back of broken down cars had raised questions about
their safety.
5 April 1998, The longest suspension bridge in the world to date opened in Japan,
linking Honshu to Shikoku. The main span was 1.25 miles 92.2 km) long.
Construction cost US$ 3.6 billion and took ten years.
30 January 1997. An underground protest came to an end as the last protestor,
known as Swampy, emerged from a
tunnel under the proposed A.30.
5 June 1996, The
second Severn Road Crossing (Prince of Wales Bridge) opened near Bristol.
29 February 1996, Bailiffs began evicting the Newbury by-pass protestors who had been protesting that the route
ran through environmentally-sensitive areas. Contractors had been due to start
work on 10 January 1996.
15 October 1995, The road bridge
between Skye and the Scottish mainland opened.
30 October 1991. Queen Elizabeth II opened the Queen Elizabeth Bridge over the Thames at Dartford.
29 October 1986. The final section of the M.25 London Orbital Motorway was opened.
17 July 1981, Queen Elizabeth II formally opened the Humber Bridge, then the longest single-span
suspension bridge in the world.� It had
opened to traffic on 24 June 1981.
24 June 1981. The Humber Bridge opened to traffic,
and the Humber Ferry, the diesel powered Faringford, made its last crossing
between Hull and New Holland. Queen
Elizabeth II officially opened the Bridge on 17 July 1981. Work on the
Bridge had begun in 1973, but there had been plans for a bridge, or even a
tunnel, for several decades before. When opened it was the world�s longest
single-span suspension bridge, at 1,410 metres, or 4,636 feet.
11 July 1980. The Britannia road bridge across the Menai
Straits was opened.
1975, The construction of motorways and dual carriageways in the
UK now gave rise to a new word as such roads underwent repairs; �contraflow�.
23 May 1974. The Avonmouth M.5 Bridge was opened.
16 March 1973. The new London Bridge was opened by the Queen. In 23
September 1968 the foundation stone of the old London Bridge had been laid at
Lake Havasu City, Arizona.
27 July 1972, Work began on the Humber Bridge, the
world�s longest suspension bridge with a central span of 4,626 feet.� Queen
Elizabeth II opened it on 17 July 1981.
24 May 1972. Spaghetti Junction opened in Birmingham.
It was expected to handle 40,000 vehicles a day when opened, but in 2002,
140,000 vehicles used the junction every day.�
This was part of the Midlands Link, opened this day, a seven mile
stretch opened by Peter Walker, Secretary of State for the Environment.� There
was now continuous motorway from London to Carlisle.
10 October 1971, The rebuilding of London Bridge at lake Havasu City, Arizona, USA, was
completed. In 1962 it had been discovered that London Bridge, started in 1824
and completed in 1831, was sinking, and in 1968 a buyer, Robert P McCulloch of
the USA, was found. He paid just under US$ 2.5 million,� The dismantling and transport cost US$ 7
million. A new London Bridge was constructed, opening in 3/1973.
2 July 1971. The
Erskine Bridge over the Clyde was opened.
24 June 1971. In Liverpool, the first tube of the second
Mersey Tunnel opened.
18 April 1968. London Bridge
was sold
for �1million to oil tycoon Robert McCullough.� He had it rebuilt at Lake Havasu in the USA. It was rumoured that he thought he was
buying Tower Bridge.
2 August 1967, The second Blackwall road tunnel, London, opened
(first tunnel opened 22 May 1897).
8 September 1966. Queen Elizabeth II opened the Severn Bridge.
The career of ferryman Enoch Williams, who had carried passengers and cars
across the Severn estuary since starting his business on the first day of the
general Strike 1926, ended.
18 August 1966. The Queen Mother opened the Tay Road Bridge.
24 March 1965, The Chiswick Flyover, London, opened.
22 January 1965, The M.1.
between Leicester and J.22 for Burton on Trent, 18.5 miles, officially opened.
4/ September 1964. Queen Elizabeth II opened the Forth Road Bridge.�
It was 6,156 feet long, with a centre span of 3,300 feet. Construction
began 21 November 1958.
18 November 1963. The Dartford Tunnel was opened. Initial
construction works had begin in 1936, when a pilot tunnel was dug (completed
1938). However further works were delayed due to World War Two, and further
tunnel works only resumed in 1959.
3 July 1963, The Clyde Road Tunnel, Glasgow, opened;
construction began in 1957.
21 July 1961, Runcorn Bridge, on the River Mersey, opened.� It was then the longest steel arch bridge in
the UK.
15 August 1960. Britain�s first motorway service station opened to the public, on the
M.1 at Newport Pagnell.
Motorist Graham Miller was the first
to buy food
there. The services had opened in 1959 but only for lorry drivers.
2 November 1959. The London to
Birmingham motorway opened. The first
stretch of the M1 opened on 1 November 1959. Sightseers flocked to look at it.
17 March 1959, The UK
Government announced plans for a major
expansion of the road network.
5 December 1958. The UK�s
first stretch of motorway, 6 � miles of the M6 at Preston, was opened by
Prime Minister Harold Macmillan. It took two years to build at a cost of
�3,750,000.
21 November 1958, Work
began on the Forth Road Suspension Bridge, then the longest suspension bridge in the UK. It was completed in
1964.
1955, The hard shoulder
came into use in the UK (see 9/2006), a 3-metre wide strip at the side of a
motorway for broken-down vehicles.
11 December 1945. The new Waterloo Bridge, London,
designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott,
fully opened.� Half its width had been in
use since 1942.
13 December 1944, For London, a series of concentric ring roads and
green belts were proposed. Two of these correspond to the North Circular and M.25.
11 August 1942. In
London, the new Waterloo Bridge
opened to traffic.
1937, In the UK, the Trunk
Roads Act (1936) became law. Under this Act, the maintenance of 4,500 miles
of trunk road became the responsibility of the Ministry of Transport, whilst
all other local roads remained under the control of local councils and county
highway authorities. Britain now had 11.5 motor vehicles (excluding motor
bikes) per mile of road.
29 April 1935. �Cats eye� reflectors were used on
British roads for the first time. They had
been invented in 1934 by Percy Shaw (1890-1976).
1934, Silvertown
Way, linking the Victoria Docks and Canning Town, London, opened.
18 July 1934. King George V opened the Mersey Tunnel.
It was 2.13 miles long and had a diameter of 44 feet, allowing for 4 traffic
lanes. See 18 December 1925.
4 April 1934, The first
�cat�s eye� studs were laid in the
road at an accident black spot, a crossroads near Bradford, Yorkshire, UK.
Pre WW2 fast road development
1939, Main roads acquired lay bys, where vehicles could park temporarily without obstructing
the traffic flow. There was sometimes a problem with caravans using these lay
bys as a camping site, causing a litter problem as well. The lay by often
hosted a �pull-in�, a roadside caf�
which is the forerunner of the motorway services.
1933, Dual
carriageways began to appear in Britain, to speed up traffic flow. The idea
was to make the centre reservation an �amenity� with plants and trees.
30 May 1925. King
George V opened the Great West Road
at Brentford, London. It was seen as a model for post-War
development.
25 March 1925. The new fast London-Southend road was opened.
1909, First use of the term �loop road� for what is now generally called a by-pass, a term used from ca. 1922 onwards. From 1928 the term ring road was also used for a by-pass
encircling a town entirely.
17 December 1933, Just for
this day, the public were allowed to walk through the newly completed Mersey Tunnel.
3 July 1933, In
London, Chiswick and Richmond road bridges opened.
19 July 1932. King George opened London�s Lambeth Bridge.
1931, Traffic Islands,
refuges in the centre of busy roads which both directed the traffic and
provided a refuge for pedestrians crossing road, came into use.
10 October 1928. The King
and Queen opened the new Tyne road
bridge.
1 June 1927, London�s new Regent Street was opened by King George V.
18 December 1925. Work began
on the Mersey Road Tunnel,
Liverpool.� It opened on 18 July 1934.
6 June 1921. Southwark Bridge opened by the King.It
cost �375,000, and replaced an iron bridge built by Sit John Rennie, 1814-19.
21 May 1916, Keadby swing road bridge, Lincolnshire,
opened over the River Trent. It was necessary to serve the growing traffic
between Immingham Docks (opened 1912) and the developing coalfields of South
Yorkshire.
12 June 1908. London's Rotherhithe
Tunnel opened.� It runs between
Rotherhithe and Stepney.
26 May 1906. The
rebuilt Vauxhall Bridge over the
Thames was reopened.
1 February 1906, The UK
Government dropped plans for a fast motor road between London
and Brighton.
18 October 1905, Kingsway
and Aldwych, London, opened.
10 February 1903, Two new
roads in London
were named; Kingsway, after King
George VII, and Aldwych.
4 August 1902, The
Greenwich foot tunnel under the Thames opened. It replaced a ferry that had
existed here since 1676.
1900, Work on clearing housing
and theatres for the new Aldwych road began. Widening work on the Strand also
began.
Tarmac
surfacing
3 April 1902, The
patent for Tarmac road surfacing was filed by Edgar Purnell Hooley of
Nottingham,England. John Macadam, Scottish engineer and General
Surveyor of Roads in England from 1827, first tried to improve road surfaces by
using crushed stone. This was a major improvement on dirt roads, which could
soon become impassable after heavy rain. However they too were problematical in
bad weather, and the stones could puncture the tyres of the new automobiles. In
1901 Edgar
Hooley, County Surveyor of Nottinghamshire, noticed that a stretch
of road at Denby, Derbyshire, was rut-free. He found that a barrel of tar had
fallen off a dray, and that waste slag from a nearby blast furnace has been
used to cover the tar. Hooley patented the idea but failed to develop
it financially. The patent was bought by Sir Alfred Hickman, a steelworks owner in
Wolverhampton.
26 November 1836. John McAdam, the road engineer who gave his name
to a new type of road surface, tarmac, died, aged 80. He was the son of a
banker in Ayr, and developed the idea of a raised road surface of broken stone
with a drain either side. See 3 April 1902.
1817, The first stretch of �macadamised� road was laid, in
London.
1810, John Mac Adam began experiments in different
types of road surface. See 1819.
21 September 1756, John Mac Adam,
Scottish surveyor who pioneered the use
of tar-macadam for road surfacing, was born in Ayr.
22 May 1897. The
Prince of Wales opened the Blackwall Tunnel in London.
30 June 1894. London�s Tower
Bridge was officially opened to traffic.� Sir
Horace Jones and J Wolfe Barry
designed it.
21 July 1890, Lord
Rosebery opened Battersea Bridge.
1889,
Fulham road bridge, London, opened.
18 June 1887, Hammersmith Bridge, London, was opened.
1 May 1883, The new
road system at Hyde Park Corner, London,
opened.
23 August 1873, The Albert Bridge across the Thames was
opened.
1869,
Kew road bridge, London, opened.
1869, Holborn
Viaduct road bridge, London, opened, after six years construction.
6 November 1869, Blackfriars Bridge, London, opened.
1865, Concrete roads were first trialled in Scotland.
1864, A House of Commons Select Committee began considering the
process of eliminating turnpikes on British roads. Ireland had been entirely toll free
since 1858, and almost all tolls in south Wales had been discontinued by now,
but 854 toll trusts still existed across England and Scotland. Welsh turnpike
abolition began after the Rebecca Riots https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebecca_Riots
of 1839-43, when many impoverished farmers (dressed as women for disguise,
hence the name) protested against turnpike tolls. By 1874 there were just 184
remaining, and by 1876 only 71 were still operating. By 1890 just 2 toll trusts
were left, the last one (Anglesey)
ceasing operations on 15 October 1895. The Turnpikes had been hard-hit by the
railways, and their receipts fell by a third between 1837 and 1850, leaving
many barely solvent.
8 December 1864, Brunel�s Clifton Suspension Bridge
over the River Avon in Bristol was opened.
1863,
Kingston road bridge, London, opened.
1862, Lambeth
Bridge, London, opened. The
earliest mention of a ferry here is in 1513; this ferry ceased operations when
the first Westminister Bridge opened in 1750. The current Lambeth Bridge opened
in 1932.
24 May 1862. London�s
Westminster Bridge was opened.
1858, Chelsea
Bridge, London, was completed. Tolls were charged to cross it until 1879.
1849,
Barnes road bridge, London, opened.
1848,
Richmond road bridge, London, opened.
1839, Wood-block paved roads
were first laid, in England.
The wood was treated with creosote then the blocks were bonded together with
pitch; the blocks were laid on a concrete foundation.
1835, The Highways Act
gave Britain�s 15,000 parishes the power to levy a rate for road maintenance.
2 September 1834. Thomas Telford, born 9 August 1757,
died. He was known as the �Colossus of
Roads� for his engineering
works.� He was buried in Westminster
Abbey.
1 August 1831. King William IV opened New London Bridge,
designed by John Rennie.� It lasted 140 years before being dismantled,
sold to an American, and rebuilt in Arizona.
1827, Hammersmith Bridge,
the first suspension bridge in London, opened. It was replced by the
current structure on 1883.
30 January 1926, The Menai
Straits road suspension bridge, Anglesey, designed by Thomas Telford, opened to traffic.
15 June 1825, The Duke of York laid the foundation stone
of London
Bridge.
15 March 1824, Construction
work began on John Rennie�s London Bridge.
4 October 1821, Scottish
civil engineer John Rennie, bridge designer, died in London.
1819, Picadilly Circus was laid
out; Regent Street was then under construction (opened 1823)
Horse
transport; road versus canal
1819, A Select Committee of the House of Commons
considered John Mac Adams�s report
on road surfaces. His major innovation was, not to go for a firm base but to
seal the top surface of the road. A
packhorse on an unimproved road could carry a maximum of 100 kg, but on an
improved road it could draw a wheeled load of 500 � 600 kg. However on inland waterways a
horse could draw 30 tons on a river or up to 50 tons on a canal. Moreover
some loads were impossible to transport on unmade roads, but feasible by canal,
for example fragile pottery.
22 June 1817. London�s Waterloo Bridge, built
by John Rennie, was opened. It was
originally called Strand Bridge but was renamed on the anniversary of the
Battle of Waterloo. It was replaced in 1945.
1816, Vauxhall
Bridge in London opened; it was initially known as The Regent�s
Bridge. It was thre first iron bridge over the Thames in central London.
Vauxhall Rridge Road was also built in 1816,
21 August 1813, The
Archway cutting under Hornsey Lane opened, see 13 April 1812. Tolls for the
cutting were �not exceeding� 6d per horse and carriage, 3d for a horse or mule
not drawing a carriage, and 1d for a pedestrian. Tolls ceased in 1871.
13 April 1812, A road
tunnel being constructed at Archway, north London, for an extension of Archway
Road northwards under Hornsey Lane, collapsed due to too few bricks and
inferior cement being used for the tunnel. The tunnel was replaced by s deep
cutting, with Hornsey Lane being carried across on a viaduct. See 21 August 1813.
1791,
The River Trent was first bridged at
Gainsborough.
1 January 1781. The
first wholly iron bridge in the world
was opened at Ironbridge, Shropshire,
consisting of a 100 foot span across the Severn. In 1755 an iron bridge had been planned across the Rhone at Lyons
but owing to the high cost only one span was made of iron; the others of wood.
1776, Battersea road bridge, London, opened.
1775, The state of British roads was so bad that the Horsehay
Iron Company of Shropshire found it more practical to send its products to
Chester, just 30 miles away overland, by a circuitous water route down the
River Severn, around Wales, and up the River Dee,
1771, A small wooden footbridge opened across the Thames
at Battersea. It could only carry light cart and coach traffic.
1769, Blackfriars road bridge, London, opened.
1761, The ancient Roman gate of Aldgate, between Fenchurch Street
and Whitechapel, last rebuilt 1608, was finally demolished.
1759, The road
bridge at Kew, W London, was built of wood, It was replaced by a
stone bridge in 1789; the present bridge dates from 1903.
1756, The Euston Road, originally �New Road� was created by the
2nd Duke of Grafton to drive cattle from the west of London to Smithfield
Market, avoiding Oxford Circus and Holborn. Objections from the Capper family,
who grew hay in the area and feared the effects of clouds of dust on their
crop, were overruled.
3/1756, The Gentleman�s
Magazine recorded that the Mile End Road, just a mile east of Aldgate, London,
was so deep in mud that a light coach, pulled by four horses, could scarcely
exceed walking pace.
1753, The
Thames Bridge at Hampton Court opened. It was made of wood; the
current concrete bridge opened in 1933.
16 November 1750, Westminister Bridge, London,
opened. It replaced the old ferry which operated here until this
time.
1745, The absence of good roads in the north of Scotland became a
major handicap in dealing with the Jacobite
Rebellion there.
1737, London�s �Fleet River
was roofed over and Farringdon Street created on the surface.
1729, Putney road bridge was constructed.
15 August 1717, Britain�s
first road engineer, John Metcalfe,
was born in Knaresborough, Yorkshire.
1663, Britain�s
first turnpike gates were put up, at
Wadesmill, Hertfordshire.
1555, England passed the Highways
Act, requiring each parish to appoint two �Surveyors of Highways�, to keep
the roads in repair by compulsory unpaid labour, under the direction of (also
unpaid) surveyors. Unsuprisingly, English roads remained in a poor state.
1274, First mention
of �Flete Strete�, London.
1269, The first toll roads in England.
1219, William
de Coventry was Appointed
Master of Kingston Bridge (S W London). This is one of the oldest bridges over
the Thames in the London area.
1179, The �Old� London Bridge was designed by clergyman Peter de Colechurch. It soon became
crowded with houses and was demolished and replaced in 1824.
924, The first record of a bridge over the Trent at Nottingham.
Europe
14 December 2004, The world�s tallest bridge, at Millau,
France, over the River Tarn, was opened by President Jacques Chirac.
5 September 1980. The world�s longest road tunnel opened in
Switzerland. The Simplon Tunnel ran for 10.14 miles, 16.32 kilometres, under
the St Gotthard range.
4 August 1967, The Tagus Road
Bridge at Lisbon opened
16 July 1965 The seven-mile Mont Blanc road tunnel opened, linking France with Italy. This road tunnel had first been
proposed by French engineer Lepiney back in 1870. The
tunnel took 6 years to build.
26 March 1923. The world�s first inter-urban motorway
opened, in Italy. It was formally opened by the King of Italy on 21 September 1924. It
ran from Milan to Varese and the Lombardy Lakes.
10 September 1921. Completion
of the first motorway (autobahn) in Germany. The 6 �� mile (10 km) route ran from Grunwald, Berlin,
to the suburb of Wannsee, was exclusively for motor vehicles, and had
controlled limited access. It had been planned in September 1909 and was nearly
complete when the outbreak of World War One delayed its completion. Intended
to double as a motor racing track, it has a loop at either end where
competitors could turn round without stopping. It had 2 carriageways 26 feet wide
and a 26 feet wide grassed central reservation, and ten concrete flyovers
spanned it. Known as the Avus Autobahn, it is still in use today as route 115.
27 March 1809, Baron Georges Hausmann, who planned the long
boulevards of Paris,
was born.
1747, The first engineering
school, the Ecole des ponts et chaussees
(school of bridges and highways) was established in France.
1716, In France, the Corps des Ingenieurs des Ponts et Chausees was set up; they founded
a technical school in 1747. The political purpose of this agency was to help
unify France.
1507, In Paris the Pont Notre Dame opened; the first stone bridge
in France.
1218, In Switzerland the Twarenbrick (Transverse
Bridge) over the Schwollen Canyon is the first suspension bridge in Europe.
Asia and Oceania
30 May 1959. Auckland�s Harbour Bridge on New Zealand�s North
Island officially opened.
19 March 1932. Sydney
Harbour Bridge was officially opened. At 1,650 feet, it was the world�s
longest single-span bridge.
18 August 1930. The two halves of Sydney Bridge met in the
middle, seven years after building work began. The 503 metre bridge used 38,390
tons of high tensile steel. Completion was scheduled for March 1932.
630,
Buddhist scholar Hsuan
Tsang provided the first written record of an iron chain
link suspension bridge, over the River Indus.
399, Earliest
mention of a suspension bridge. Chinese monk Fa Hsien described a suspension footbridge
over the River Indus.
600 BCE,
Greek
historian Herodotus
described a bridge over the Euphrates. It was 600 feet long and comprised wooden
beams supported on stone pillars.
North America
15 March 1968, The USA�s
highest road tunnel, the Eisenhower-Johnson Memorial Tunnel, 2.72 km long and
3401 metres above sea level, opened.
21 November 1964, The Verrazano Narrows suspension bridge,
across the entrance to New York Harbour, opened to traffic.
3 September 1962. The
Trans-Canada Highway, 4,800 miles from St John�s Newfoundland to Victoria,
British Columbia, was opened.
13 August 1959, Work began on the Verrazano Narrows cable
suspension bridge in New York City.
12 July 1954, US Vice President Richard Nixon announced the
construction of a network of Interstate Highways which would enable drivers to
cross the USA without encountering a single crossroads or traffic light. They
would also be useful as part of a defensive network, and to provide rapid exits
from cities in the event of war.
5 November 1951, The New Jersey Turnpike opened between New
York and Philadelphia, 190 km.
27 May 1937. The
world�s longest suspension bridge, the Golden
Gate Bridge in San Francisco, was opened. The centre span was 4,200 feet
long and with the approaches the bridge was over 8 miles long. The project cost
US$ 77.2 million.
12 November 1936, The San
Francisco�Oakland Bay Bridge opened.
1933, The clover-leaf junction was developed. It enabled traffic to take any
turn at a freeway intersection without crossing other traffic, by means of
roads on different levels, and was named after its appearance from the air.
Germany also soon adopted this design.
13 November 1927, The Holland Tunnel, linking New York City
to New Jersey, was opened.
17 June 1926, The
Seventh Street Bridge (now the Andy Warhol Bridge) opened in Pittsburgh.
3 December 1917, The Quebec Bridge over the St Lawrence
River opened.� 87 lives were lost during
its construction.
31 December 1909, New York�s Manhattan Bridge opened; it cost
US$ 31 million to build.
30 March 1909, New York�s Queensboro Bridge opened; it
cost US$ 17 million to build.
19 December 1903, The Williamsburg Bridge, linking New York
to Brooklyn, opened.
24 May 1883. Brooklyn
Bridge, New York, was opened. At over a mile long, with a central span of
1595 feet, this was then the longest suspension bridge in the world, and was
the first bridge in New York City. It was designed by John Augustus Roebling.
3 January 1870, Work began on the Brooklyn
� New York bridge over the East River.