Motorway Database

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Not only does this road have the honour of starting at the magnificent Spaghetti Junction, it is also probably the most bizarre motorway in the UK. It has seven undivided lanes that are controlled by overhead signal gantries. Most of the time there are three lanes each way, but at peak hours the balance is tipped 4-2, always using one empty lane as a buffer.

Apparently there has never been a fatal head-on accident on this road (ie, no fatality has been caused by the lack of a central reservation), which is a tribute to the responsibility of those who use it. Nonetheless, motorcycles are now banned from the central lane because it contains a narrow drainage channel, and prior to the ban a fatality resulted from the covers of this channel working loose.

Motorways are crossed, over and under, by all manner of things - roads, railways, footbridges, water and gas mains, electricity lines and so on. But the A38(M) has a claim to fame that is probably unique in this country, if not the world. Where the road is in a deep cutting, the motorway used to bisect a factory compound owned by HP, the condiment company of brown table sauce fame. The result of this was that, connecting the two sides of the production line and passing over seven lanes of the Aston Expressway, was a vinegar pipeline. Sadly production has now moved overseas, and the pipeline is no more.

There are two other sections of A38 that are near motorway standard and which appear in the Motorway Database: the nearby A38 Midlands Section and the more distant A38 Devon Expressway.

Factfile

Start	Gravelly Hill (M6)
Finish	Birmingham (A38)
Passes	None
Length	2 miles
Terminates	None
Spurs	None
Meets	None

Images

Views of the A38(M) from on and off the road. If you have a photo to contribute, contact me.

Leaving Birmingham, the A38(M) begins life in this underpass as a good old fashioned urban motorway, in a dingy concrete trench with some steep slopes along the way.
Photo by Steven Jukes

But further out is where things start to look special. Here the traffic from the midway junction is merging in, and above us is one of the many signal gantries.
Photo by Steven Jukes

Construction Timeline

When the various parts of the A38(M) were built, listed in chronological order.

Open	Jct	Section
1972		Entire motorway

Exit List

All the junctions and destinations along the route.

NB: "7 lanes" refers to the total width of the A38(M)'s carriageway. See the notes above to see how the system works.

Junction	Northbound				Southbound
(M6 J6)	The NORTH WEST Wolverhampton M6 (M5 , M54 )	M6	NORTH A5127	A38 M6 A5127	N/A

	The SOUTH Coventry M6 (M1 ) NEC & (M42 )

	Sutton Coldfield A5127

	Lichfield Tamworth A38

	Aston A5127
	2 miles, 7 lanes				1 mile, 7 lanes
				B4132	Aston B4132
					1 mile, 7 lanes
	N/A	A4540	A38 SOUTH	A4540	City Centre A38

					Handsworth Ladywood A4540

					Aston Small Heath A4540