The Middleway


The Middleway, officially designated as the A4540 and signposted as ring road, is an orbital road in Birmingham, England. Serving as the sole ring road of the city, it runs around Birmingham city centre at a distance of approximately. The A38 cuts through it vertically.

History

The ring road was planned and designed by Herbert Manzoni. It was then known as the Middle Ring Road, due to the existence of the now-defunct Inner Ring Road, and as a result it is now often referred to as simply the "Ring Road".
The Middleway forms the boundary to Birmingham Clean Air Zone, although the road itself is not part of the zone.
Plans to make The Middleway a red route were proposed as early as 2008 but dropped in 2021.

Route

The A4540 covers the following route: –
Heaton Street and New John Street are both numbered A4540 and was the route for all traffic using the Ring Road prior to the construction of the underpass through Snow Hill.

Pedestrian facilities

All but four of the numbered A4540 junctions have signal-controlled pedestrian crossings of the ring road. Of the four, Dartmouth Circus, Ashted Circus and Five Ways have subways; Bordesley Circus has uncontrolled pedestrian crossings despite often heavy traffic. There are mostly lightly used pavements around the entire ring road, though several busy side roads joining the ring road have only uncontrolled crossings for pedestrians. Some parts of the pavement are designated cycle paths, but much of the rest of the pavement is used by cyclists illegally to avoid the heavy traffic and frequent roundabouts on the ring road.

Coordinates

LocationCoordinate
Northern point
Eastern point
Southern point
Western point

Points of interest

The traffic island at Dartmouth Circus houses a preserved Boulton and Watt steam engine, the Grazebrook beam engine.