The M10 was a

motorway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For gov ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

, running for approximately 3 miles (4.5 km) from the

M1 motorway The M1 motorway connects London to Leeds, where it joins the A1(M) near Aberford, to connect to Newcastle. It was the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the UK; the first motorway in the country was the Preston By-pass, which ...

at junction 7 near

Hemel Hempstead Hemel Hempstead () is a town in the Dacorum district in Hertfordshire, England, northwest of London, which is part of the Greater London Urban Area. The population at the 2011 census was 97,500. Developed after the Second World War as a new ...

to the A414 North Orbital Road at Park Street Roundabout, just south of

St Albans St Albans () is a cathedral city in Hertfordshire, England, east of Hemel Hempstead and west of Hatfield, north-west of London, south-west of Welwyn Garden City and south-east of Luton. St Albans was the first major town on the old Roman ...

. Opened in 1959, it was reclassified as part of the A414 in 2009.

History

The M10 opened on 2 November 1959 along with the M1 and M45, and was designed and constructed by Tarmac Construction as part of the St Albans bypass (along with the M1 between junctions 5 and 10). At the time, the M1's southern terminus was at junction 5 at Berrygrove, with the main route from there to the A1 in London being via the A41

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, and ...

Bypass. Since the capacity of the A roads was much less than that of the motorway, a distributing spur was required to split up the traffic and reduce congestion at Berrygrove. The M10 was thus built to distribute southbound traffic on the M1 onto the A5 (now A5183) and, as an alternative, via the North Orbital Road and the A6 to the A1 Barnet Bypass. The M45 was the equivalent distributing spur at the northern end of the M1, and is thus regarded as a sister motorway to the M10. In later years, as the M1 was extended southwards into London and the M25 was built, the M10's original purpose eroded. It was sometimes suggested that the motorway might have been extended to meet the M25 at junction 22, but this was never proposed.

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In December 2008, widening of the M1 between the M25 and

Luton Luton () is a town and unitary authority with borough status, in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 census, the Luton built-up area subdivision had a population of 211,228 and its built-up area, including the adjacent towns of Dunstable an ...

was completed, with non-motorway collector/distributor lanes built to link junction 8 of the M1, at Hemel Hempstead, with junction 7 and the M10.Highways Agency Leaflet (PDF)
/ref> As traffic could now travel between Hemel Hempstead and Park Street Roundabout without having to access the M1, there was no need to keep the M10 as a motorway. Hence, on 1 May 2009, the M10 was downgraded to an

A road A roads may be *motorways or freeways, usually where the local word for motorway begins with A (for example, ''Autobahn'' in German; ''Autostrada'' in Italian). * main roads or highways, in a system where roads are graded A, B and sometimes lower c ...

, and designated as part of the A414. This also released the "M10" designation for use elsewhere. This also had the added bonus of allowing lorries to park when waiting for access to a proposed rail freight depot. Otherwise if the proposed rail freight depot went ahead and it had remained a motorway there would have been nowhere for lorries to wait.

Junctions

References

External links

Roads.org.uk Motorway Database – M10

Pathetic Motorways – M10

{{DEFAULTSORT:1-0010 Former motorways of the United Kingdom Roads in Hertfordshire Buildings and structures completed in 1959 Motorways in England

History

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Junctions

See also

References

External links