The Middleway, officially designated as the A4540 and signposted as ring road, is an orbital road in

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

, England. Serving as the sole ring road of the city, it runs around

Birmingham city centre Birmingham city centre, also known as Central Birmingham, is the central business district of Birmingham, England. The area was historically in Warwickshire. Following the removal of the Birmingham Inner Ring Road, Inner Ring Road, the city cent ...

at a distance of approximately . The A38 (including the Queensway tunnels) cuts through it vertically.

History

Hockley Hill - sign - Welcome to North West Birmingham

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

Traffic on the A4540 at Lee Bank - geograph

The A4540 covers the following route: – * Dartmouth Circus (Roundabout with Aston Expressway and A38 Lichfield Rd) (Pedestrian subway through roundabout) * Dartmouth Middleway * Ashted Circus (junction with A47—with pedestrian subway island) * Lawley Middleway (with Curzon Circus in the middle) * Garrison Circus (junction with Garrison Lane) * Watery Lane Middleway * Bordesley Circus (junction with A45) * Bordesley Middleway * Camp Hill Circus (junction with A41 Stratford Road) * Highgate Middleway * Haden Circus (junction with A4167 and A435) * Belgrave Middleway * Belgrave Interchange (junction with A441 followed by A38) Main road passes underneath interchange * Lee Bank Middleway * Islington Row Middleway * Five Ways Island (junction with A456 which passes underneath island.) Original plans showed the A4540 as passing under the roundabout but this was later changed, a move which is commonly viewed as a mistake and would have alleviated the heavy congestion at the island. The former Broad St section of the A456, which runs under the island, was downgraded in the 1990s. (Pedestrian subway through island) * Ladywood Middleway * Ladywood Circus * Junction with A457 *

Icknield Street Icknield Street or Ryknild Street is a Roman road in England, with a route roughly south-west to north-east. It runs from the Fosse Way at Bourton on the Water in Gloucestershire () to Templeborough in South Yorkshire (). It passes through ...

* (Heaton Street, a road which connects the A4540 to Hockley Circus and the junction with the A41) * Boulton Middleway * Lucas Circus * New John Street West * Junction with A34 Newtown Row * Newtown Middleway 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 (and the three subways) 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

Points of interest

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

References