Route
The M5 follows the route of the A38 road quite closely. The two deviate slightly around Bristol and the area south of Bristol (Junctions 16 to 22). The A38 goes straight through the centre of Bristol and passes by Bristol Airport; whereas the M5 skirts around both of them, with access to the airport from Junctions 18, 19 or 22. The A38 continues south from where the M5 finishes in Devon.
Between Junction 21, Weston-super-Mare and Junction 22, Burnham-on-Sea, the M5 passes by an isolated landmark hill called Brent Knoll. The Willow Man sculpture is visible from both carriageways, and acts as a landmark just to the south of Junction 23.
The Almondsbury Interchange, between the M5 and the M4 near Bristol is a four level stack interchange. The Avonmouth Bridge is often a bottleneck in heavy traffic. There are split-level carriageways where the motorway climbs the sides of the hills above the Gordano Valley, between Portishead and Clevedon. Junction 1 surrounds a surviving gatehouse from the former Sandwell Hall.
Read more about this topic: M5 Motorway
Famous quotes containing the word route:
“In the mountains the shortest route is from peak to peak, but for that you must have long legs. Aphorisms should be peaks: and those to whom they are spoken should be big and tall of stature.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“A route differs from a road not only because it is solely intended for vehicles, but also because it is merely a line that connects one point with another. A route has no meaning in itself; its meaning derives entirely from the two points that it connects. A road is a tribute to space. Every stretch of road has meaning in itself and invites us to stop. A route is the triumphant devaluation of space, which thanks to it has been reduced to a mere obstacle to human movement and a waste of time.”
—Milan Kundera (b. 1929)
“By a route obscure and lonely,
Haunted by ill angels only,
Where an eidolon, named Night,
On a black throne reigns upright,
I have reached these lands but newly
From an ultimate dim Thule—
From a wild weird clime that lieth, sublime,
Out of space—out of time.”
—Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)