Gravelly Hill Interchange

The asymmetrical junction provides access to and from the A38 (Tyburn Road), A38(M) (Aston Expressway), the A5127 (Lichfield Road/Gravelly Hill), and several unclassified local roads. It covers 30 acres, serves 18 routes and includes 4 km of slip roads, but only 1 km of the M6 itself. Across five different levels, it has 559 concrete columns, reaching up to 24.4 m. The engineers had to elevate 21.7 km of motorway to accommodate two railway lines, three canals and two rivers. In 1958, the Ministry of Transport commissioned the engineering firm Sir Owen Williams & Partners to investigate possible routes to connect the M6, the A38(M) and the A38 trunk road. The interchange's colloquial name,…

The development of the interchange was approved and announced in August 1968 by the then Minister of Transport, Richard Marsh. Construction was expected to take three years and to cost £8m. The contract was given to A. Monk Ltd, of Padgate, for £8,183,790 in August 1968. Work started in September 1968 on the 30-acre junction. Monk were also building part of the M3. The work was led by chief engineer Roy Foot. There were a number of objections and protests over the interchange, particularly a campaign to "save our fish" to relocate a quarter of a million fish from a pool that would be removed as part of the engineering work. One stipulation in construction was that the canal towpaths running…