Coventry ring road
The Coventry ring road, designated as the A4053, is a ring road in Coventry, England, which forms a complete dual-carriageway loop around the city centre. The road encompasses the old and new Coventry Cathedrals, the city's shopping areas and much of Coventry University. With the exception of one roundabout at junction 1, the ring road's nine junctions are grade separated and closely spaced, with weaving sections between them, some as short as, giving the road a reputation for being difficult to navigate. The junctions include connections with three other A-roads: the A4114, A4600 and A429.
From the 1930s, Coventry City Council began replacing the city's narrow medieval streets with modern roads, to cope with a rapidly growing population. City architect Donald Gibson began work in 1939 on a city centre redevelopment plan which expanded in scope following World War II, during which large areas of the city were destroyed by German bombs. The shopping area was rebuilt first, followed by the ring road, which was constructed in six stages from 1959. Early stages were built with at-grade junctions, cycle tracks and footpaths, envisaged as a surface-level linear park. Following traffic surveys in the early 1960s, however, the council amended the design to include grade separation and the weaving sections. Research by the city engineer indicated that it was the first urban road in the world to use this configuration at such a small scale. The road was completed in 1974, with an overall cost of £14.5 million.
As one of the few British cities to see its ring road project to completion, Coventry has received attention as a source of research for post-war architecture. An article by BBC News noted that opinions about the road were varied, concluding that "you either love it or you hate it". The road was the subject of a 2015 series of poetry films and driving on it has been likened to driving a Scalextric car and riding on a roller coaster.
Route description
The ring road forms a complete dual-carriageway loop around the city centre of Coventry, with the designation A4053 in the Great Britain road numbering scheme. It is in length and is a primary route throughout. The road encloses an area containing the old and new Coventry Cathedrals, much of Coventry University, shopping areas such as the Upper Precinct, Lower Precinct, West Orchards and Cathedral Lanes, the medieval Spon Street and the Coventry Skydome.Being a complete ring road, it does not have unique start or end points. Junction 1, the road's only at-grade junction and its northernmost point, is a roundabout with four exits: the eastbound and westbound ring roads, the B4113 Foleshill Road to the north and Tower Street to the south. Proceeding east, junction 2 is a grade separated junction with Hales Street, White Street and Bird Street and the closest to Pool Meadow Bus Station. Between junctions 2 and 4, the carriageway rises to become an elevated highway called the Swanswell viaduct. Junction 3 is the easternmost on the circuit, providing access to the A4600 Sky Blue Way, which is the former route of the A46 and the signed route from Coventry to Leicester via the M69, as well as linking to the M6. Junction 3 also serves the A428 to Rugby and the A444 to Nuneaton, via a pair of junctions half a mile to the east.
Continuing clockwise, the road runs due south to junction 4 with the A4114 London Road. This road links to the A46 southbound towards the M40 motorway, and also to the A45 eastbound, taking traffic to the M45 and M1 motorways towards London. The main lanes of the anticlockwise carriageway at junction 4 lead to the exit, meaning traffic staying on the ring road must move to the left, and then back to the right to avoid the junction 3 exit.
Junction 5 provides access to the south-eastern part of the city centre, via the B4544 New Union Street, and also links to a pair of roads heading south towards the suburb of Cheylesmore. Junction 6, the southernmost junction, links to the A429 Warwick Road, signposted for Kenilworth, and is also the exit for the War Memorial Park, the University of Warwick and Coventry railway station, which lies just outside the ring road loop. From junction 6, the clockwise carriageway proceeds north west. Junction 7 is the B4101 Butts Road radial, linking to the suburb of Earlsdon, the ring road passing over on the Moat Street flyover, while it passes under junction 8 for the A4114 Holyhead Road towards Birmingham, formerly the A45 westbound. The road then runs north east through junction 9 for the B4098 Radford Road radial, which it passes over on the Hill Cross flyover, before arriving back at the junction 1 roundabout.
History
Background
The road layout within Coventry and its road links to other settlements were developed during the Middle Ages, becoming stable by the 17th century. During the 19th century, some roads were upgraded to turnpike status, but development was slow due to difficulty in securing funding, and much of the city's road network consisted of narrow medieval streets. An exception was Thomas Telford's road from London to Holyhead, built through Coventry between 1827 and 1830. Telford used advanced engineering techniques for the time with good drainage and stone foundations, and the road became the major route between London and Birmingham, replacing an older route along Spon Street.In the early 20th century, Coventry was the fastest-growing city in the UK as people relocated from across the country to work in the expanding automotive, bicycle, aviation and armament industries. The city's boundaries expanded in stages, absorbing nearby villages as well as new residential areas. Coventry City Council upgraded the city's radial roads but the city centre retained its medieval character until 1930. By then, the buildings and infrastructure were unable to cope with the needs of the increased population and the council tasked city engineer Ernest Ford with modernising it. During the 1930s, Ford oversaw the construction of Corporation Street and Trinity Street as well as widening other roads. This involved large-scale demolition and relocation of residents to other areas, and created the first sections of inner ring road, on what is now the inner circulatory route. He also created the southern bypass, re-routing the A45 and London to Birmingham traffic around the city. In early 1939, the council appointed Donald Gibson as city architect. A protégé of Patrick Abercrombie at the University of Liverpool School of Architecture, Gibson assembled a team of young architects, with whom he produced plans more radical than Ford's. These were presented to the public at an exhibition in summer 1940 and included a new civic zone north east of the cathedral.
In November 1940 and April 1941, following the outbreak of World War II, the city was attacked by the Luftwaffe in the Coventry Blitz. Large areas, including the cathedral, were left in ruins. Needing to rebuild rapidly, the council instructed Gibson and Ford to work together to agree on a blueprint for the city centre. Shortly after the first bombing, they met Lord Reith, the government minister responsible for rebuilding, who advised them to plan the reconstruction "boldly and comprehensively" even if this meant high costs. The two men did not work well together and they eventually produced two separate plans; Ford's emphasised maintaining as much of the existing architecture as possible while getting businesses running again, while Gibson advocated a comprehensive redesign with a new layout and modern architecture. Gibson's plan included the use of ring roads to divert traffic away from the city centre. The pair presented their competing visions in February 1941, and the council decided to adopt Gibson's.
Gibson developed his plan throughout the war, releasing an updated version in October 1945 at the "Coventry of the Future" exhibition. The council started work on the project in 1946, laying a commemorative stone on the future site of the shopping precinct and beginning the conversion of Broadgate, the city's historic hub, into a green central square. This first phase was opened in 1948 by the future Queen Elizabeth II, with a statue of Lady Godiva added a year later.
Planning the ring road
Gibson's 1941 plan called for "a system of radial and ring roads", the innermost ring centred on a proposed civic centre east of the Council House. His intention was to use existing roads wherever possible, widening them to dual carriageways and linking them to the radial roads with roundabouts. In his 1945 "Coventry of the Future" plan, Gibson moved the proposed route of the ring road to the north and west of the 1941 version, with the new alignment centred on Broadgate. This new route no longer followed Corporation Street and Queen Victoria Road, and Gibson designated the land between these and the ring-road route for light industry. The government did not initially approve the new route, citing a concern that it encircled too much of the city. But the council's position was that the ring road could not run on Corporation Street and Queen Victoria Road as planned, due to the need for businesses to have direct access to those roads, and therefore must be sited further north west. The plan included provision for the inner circulatory route, a loop comprising existing roads inside the ring road, to serve as a distributor within the city centre. The 1945 plan also featured two additional ring roads – a middle ring passing through the suburbs, and an outer ring extending the existing A45 southern bypass.Gibson and the council made minor changes to the design during the subsequent years including the addition of two new roundabouts, to make a total of nine. The council and the government then agreed the final design in 1948. This retained many of Gibson's early ideas including a dual-carriageway layout, lanes for cyclists and pedestrians on both sides, and at-grade roundabout junctions connecting to all of the major radial routes out of the city. The route was to be long and would follow some existing routes, with new alignments for the remainder. Although the plan was agreed and signed off, the council did not begin construction immediately. Funding was limited following the economic hardship of the war, and the council's priority was the rebuilding of bomb-damaged areas in the city centre and completing the precinct, to enable businesses and shops to resume full operation. The city-centre work lasted throughout the first half of the 1950s, as the council and businesses had to negotiate the use of the space and conduct lengthy planning applications, as well as completing the construction work. The ring-road plan remained active and planners ensured that no new structures were situated close to the proposed route, to maintain its availability for road development.
In 1955, with the upper level of the precinct completed, Gibson left Coventry to become county architect for Nottinghamshire. His replacement as Coventry's city architect was Arthur Ling, who had been Senior Planning Officer for the London County Council since 1946. Ling continued Gibson's work in developing the city centre while also reviewing details of the development plan. He updated the proposals to include pedestrianisation of the north–south axis of the precinct, while noting that city centre traffic congestion remained a major issue, which would be worsened by the extended pedestrianisation. The council lobbied the government for permission and funding for the long-delayed ring road. The government had reduced investment expenditure significantly from late 1955, and in 1956 the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation denied the council permission to build the entire road, indicating that only the south-eastern portion was likely to be approved at that time. Despite this, the council in 1957 approved and submitted a plan for the full route, divided into six stages with a time estimate of six or seven years.