M4 Motorway - History

History

A new road from London to South Wales was first proposed in the 1930s, and the Ministry of Transport announced plans for the M4 as one of the first major post-war trunk road improvement projects in 1956.

The Chiswick Flyover opened in 1959; it was not originally classed as a motorway. The Maidenhead bypass opened in 1961 whilst J1-J5 opened in 1965. The stretch from J18 to the west of Newport was opened in 1966, including the Severn Bridge (now part of the M48). The Port Talbot by-pass, also built in the 1960s and now part of the M4, was originally the A48(M) motorway, a number now allocated to a short section of motorway near Cardiff. The Ministry of Transport originally intended that the M4 would terminate at Tredegar Park west of Newport, and it was only following the creation of the Welsh Office that the Government became committed to a high-standard dual carriageway to Pont Abraham in Carmarthenshire.

The English section of the motorway was completed on 22 December 1971 when the 50-mile (80 km) stretch between junctions 9 and 15 (Maidenhead and Swindon) was opened to traffic. The Welsh section was completed in 1993, when the Briton Ferry motorway bridge opened. The Second Severn Crossing opened in 1996, together with new link motorways on either side of the estuary to divert the M4 over the new crossing. The existing route over the Severn Bridge was redesignated the M48, and the new M49 was opened to connect the new crossing to the M5.

In June 1999 the section of the third lane (the lane nearest the central reservation) between junctions 2 and 3 was converted to a bus lane and opened as a pilot scheme. The scheme was made permanent in 2001. A lower speed limit was introduced along the bus lane section at the same time. The bus lane was scrapped at the end of 2010 and the third lane was returned to all-traffic use.

In April 2005 speed checks carried out by police camera vans between junction 14 and junction 18 led to a public protest, involving a go-slow of several hundred vehicles along the affected sections of the motorway.

Between 2007 and January 2010 the section from Castleton (Junction 29) to Coryton (Junction 32) was widened to 6 lanes. The scheme was formally opened in 25 January 2010 by the Deputy First Minister. Subsequently there were occasional works with associated lane restrictions.

During 2009 the Newport section of the motorway between junctions 23a and 29 was upgraded with a new concrete central barrier. In February 2010 it was proposed that the M4 in South Wales would become the first hydrogen highway with hydrogen stations provided along the route, with an aspiration for further stations to be provided along the M4 into South West England over time. A similar claim was made for a 30-mile (48 km) section of road in Scotland close to Aberdeen in September 2009 with refuelling points at Bridge of Don, Ellon and Peterhead.

In October 2010 the new transport secretary, Philip Hammond, announced that the bus lane in the London section would be suspended for 18 months from 24 December 2010 but brought back for the 2012 Summer Olympics, after which it was likely to be scrapped permanently.

Between 2008 and 2010, Junction 11, near Reading, was extensively remodelled with a new four-lane motorway junction, two new road bridges and other works. The £65m scheme included work on the Mereoak roundabout and part of the A33 Swallowfield Bypass in Shinfield, and also the conversion of the two existing bridges, one of which is available only to pedestrians and cyclists and the other to buses. It also involved the movement of the local Highways Agency and Fire Service offices, and the construction of a long footbridge network, a new bus-lane and a new gyratory. Sound barriers for nearby residential areas were also installed. In April 2008, the decision to preserve a rare Vickers machine gun pillbox and turn it into a bat roost was announced by the developers.