Black Country New Road
The Black Country New Road is a major road which runs through the West Midlands of England.
History
The route was first planned during the 1980s, as a trunk road to link the planned Black Country Route at Bilston with Junction 1 of the M5 motorway in West Bromwich. In the early 1990s, it received impetus from the Black Country Development Corporation.The first phase of the route was completed in July 1995, beginning with a half-mile stretch of dual carriageway linking the A41/A4038 junction in Moxley with the simultaneously completed final phase of the Black Country Route.
The second phase was completed in November 1995. This route was late in its completion because it made use of a four-span viaduct-style bridge over Eagle Crossing in the Toll End area of Tipton.
The third and final phase of the route was completed in the spring of 1997, with a one-mile stretch of Holyhead Road being converted into a dual carriageway.
As well as relieving traffic congestion, the Black Country Spine Road also opened up several square miles of previously inaccessible land around Wednesbury and Tipton. This allowed for commercial and light industrial development to take place and create jobs in an area which since the 1970s had been hit by de-industrialisation and unemployment. Unemployment figures in some of the area surrounding the Spine Road are still relatively high, but the businesses set up along the route have boosted the local economy.
Visible in the middle of the road just before the Patent Shaft Roundabout is the exit from a former railway tunnel which ran to the Patent Shaft Steelworks, part of which occupied this site prior to closure in 1980.