M50 motorway (England)


The M50 is a motorway in Worcestershire, Gloucestershire, and Herefordshire, England. Sometimes referred to as the Ross Spur, it is a connection of the M5 motorway to a point near Ross-on-Wye, where it joins the A40 road continuing westward into Wales. The motorway was fully opened in 1962.

Route

The M50 runs between junction 8 of the M5 motorway, NNE of Tewkesbury on the Gloucestershire-Worcestershire border; and
the junction with the A449, the A40 and the A465 ("Heads of the Valleys Road") taking traffic into South Wales.
Leaving the M5 at junction 8, it passes north of Tewkesbury then south of Ledbury. Between junctions 1 and 2 chiefly for these towns respectively, it crosses the River Severn on the Queenhill Bridge and Viaduct over the flood plain. After passing north of Newent, the motorway terminates at junction 4.

History

The construction works for the M50 were let under four contracts:
Both contracts were undertaken between 1958 and 1962:
On 3 March 1958, Harold Watkinson, the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation fired a starting flare during the inauguration ceremony in Herefordshire to signal the start of construction of the M50. Junctions 1 to 4 opened in 1960 and the section between the M5 to junction 1 opened in 1962.
The route forms a strategic route from the Midlands and northern Britain to South Wales It is one of the few British motorways not to have been widened, instead retaining its original layout of two lanes in each direction.

Murder of Marie Wilks

In 1988, a woman was abducted from the hard shoulder of the M50 and found murdered three miles further up the motorway.

Junctions

Data from driver location signs are used to provide distance and carriageway identifier information.

Services

After both ends of the M50 are motorway service stations:

History

Instead of the latter, beyond junction 4 was a larger Ross Spur Services operated by Welcome Break which closed in the 2000s.

Descriptions

The starting junction was originally a free-flowing trumpet-style, then converted to a roundabout with M5 flyover when the M5 was widened in the 1990s. Junction 1, where the M50 meets the A38, is a partial cloverleaf. Junction 2 has full slips roads from the deceleration lane into the slip roads save the kinked eastbound exit to local roads. Junction 3 consists of dual-carriageway-style 90° exits due to cost, low traffic volume and the style of road; however this has been the scene of various accidents.
The long disused railway bridge over the motorway which carried the Tewkesbury and Malvern Railway was dismantled in 2012 and donated to the Bluebell Railway.