M42 Motorway

The M42 motorway runs north east from Bromsgrove in Worcestershire to just south-west of Ashby-de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire, passing Redditch, Solihull, the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) and Tamworth on the way, serving the east of the Birmingham metropolitan area. The section between the M40 and junction 4 of the M6 forms – though unsigned as such – a part of Euroroute E05. Northwards beyond junction 11, the route is continued as the A42; the junctions on this section, 12–14, are numbered like a continuation of the motorway, but the road has non-motorway status from here.

History

Planning and construction

A new motorway route from the M5 in Worcestershire to the M1 near Nottingham was announced on 19 May 1966 in Nottingham, as a cheaper scheme than to instead upgrade the A453, piecemeal.

The motorway would join the M1 at Lockington in Leicestershire, and to join the M5 at Rashwood in Worcestershire. The motorway would be 54 miles long, and was planned by five counties, along with what became the M69. The proposed 54-mile M69 was planned to extend through Warwickshire to Strensham. This extension of the M69 was largely built as the dual carriageway A46, around Warwick. The A42 would later terminate at Lockington.

Firm plans for a new motorway by-passing the south and east of Birmingham, reaching Tamworth and connecting the M5 and M6 motorways, were announced in 1972.

The first section opened in November 1976 linking Birmingham Airport with the M6 motorway.

The curve around the south-eastern side of Solihull opened in September 1985 followed by the section from the M6 with the A5 at Tamworth in December 1985. The southern section of the motorway to Alvechurch just north of Redditch to form a junction with the A441 and from A5 at Tamworth with the A444 at Measham opened in 1986.

In 1987, the section to the A38 at Bromsgrove, south of Birmingham was completed. and then in December 1989, the motorway was completed with the opening of the link from the M5.

A planned section north of the M6 running to the M1 near Nottingham was never constructed as planned being replaced by the A42 link, a trunk road which was completed in August 1989 to link with the M1 motorway near Nottingham. The A42 is built to a similar standard to the M42, being a grade separated dual carriageway. The Measham and Ashby-de-la-Zouch bypass section was opened in August 1989 at a cost of £33m. The original planned line of the M42 saw it joining the M1 further to the north, crossing what is now the A50 Derby Southern Bypass and meeting the M1 north of Bardills Island (A52/M1 interchange).

When first built, there was no direct connection between the M5 South and M42. Westbound M42 traffic similarly had no direct connection to the M5 North. Instead traffic had to use the A38 between M5 junction 4 and M42 junction 1.

Operational history

Junction 3a was remodelled to give priority to traffic operating between the now westbound section of the M42 and the extended M40 motorway, which opened in stages between December 1989 and January 1991.

The section of the M42 between junctions 7A and 9 was re-built as part of the M6 Toll works and now forms the link between the M6 and the southern end of the toll road. The M6 Toll opened in 2003.

Active Traffic Management with hard shoulder running and variable speed limits were introduced in 2006.

Since the 1990s, there have been constant plans to build a new service station on the motorway south of Birmingham Airport and the NEC, but this has yet to be built. In 2019 Solihull Planning Committee rejected two plans to build a new service station near junction 4 or next to junction 5. However, in 2022 the Planning Inspector approved plans to allow the plans to proceed at the junction 5 scheme, subject to the road being a full ALM Smart Motorway which is currently not on plan to take place due to the cancellation of new Smart Motorways in 2023.

History of the road number

The current road is the second incarnation of the A42. The original (1923) route was Reading to Birmingham via Oxford. The whole road was renumbered in 1935 – the section from Reading to Shillingford became part of the A329, Shillingford to Oxford became part of the A423 and Oxford to Birmingham became part of the A34. In 1993 the A423 was itself renumbered, with the section formerly the A42 becoming part of the A4074 from Reading to Oxford. The modern M42 does interchange with the former A42 at junction 4 near Solihull: Stratford Road now being numbered A34 to the north of the junction and A3400 to the south.

Features

Birmingham Motorway Box

Along with sections of the M5 and M6, the southern sections of the M42 form the Birmingham Motorway Box around Birmingham. Similar to an orbital motorway such as the M25 around London, and the M60 around Manchester, there are areas where this orbital system does not work well. One such point is junction 3A, the link between the M42 and the M40, where traffic is often heavy in the rush hour. The section between the M42 and M6 is often very busy too especially around junction 6 for Birmingham Airport and NEC. The 2024 newly constructed J5a should eliminate some of these queues.

Managed motorways and Active Traffic Management

Active Traffic Management (ATM) was launched as a pilot scheme on the M42 operating between junction 3a and 7 with mandatory variable speed limits, hard shoulder running, better driver information signs and a new incident management system. This system allows operators to open and close any lane to traffic in order to help manage congestion or an incident. Between 2006 and 2007, journey times have decreased by 26% northbound and 9% southbound and journey time variability has decreased by 27%. Due to the success of the trial this system was later extended northbound to junction 9 of the M42 (and onto the adjacent M6 to junction 5) and southbound along the M40 to junction 15 as part of the first phase of a nationwide roll out of the rebranded 'Managed motorways; concept.

Incidents and accidents

*A collision involving 160 vehicles occurred on 10 March 1997 in fog in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire which resulted in three deaths and 60 injuries.
*Drivers have rated the M42 as the worst motorway in England, in a 2024 survey from Transport Focus, scoring 56 per cent for overall satisfaction from road users, citing speed limits ("for no reason"), delays, roadworks and potholes.

New junction

As of 18 December 2024 a new junction named junction 5a located between Solihull junction 5 and Birmingham Airport/NEC junction 6 and 2.4KM of new dual carriageway the A4545 alongside the motorway has been opened to provide direct access to Birmingham Airport and Birmingham Business Park and to reduce congestion in the area.

Work started in 2021 to build the new junction and road and finished on schedule at the end of 2024.

Junctions

Data from driver location signs are used to provide distance and carriageway identifier information.Driver Location Signs, M42 J1-7 (map) – Highway Authority, 2009 If a junction extends over several hundred metres and both start and end points are known, both are shown.

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, - style="background:#0079C1; text-align:center; color:white; "
, colspan="6" , M42 motorway junctions
, - style="background:#FFF; text-align:center; color:Black;"
, mile
, km
, South-westbound exits (A carriageway)
, Junction
, North-eastbound exits (B carriageway)
, Coordinates
, - style="text-align:center;"
, 0.0
0.9
, 0.0
1.4
, The North West, Birmingham (W, N & C), Stourbridge, (M6) M5(N)
The South West, Worcester M5(S)
, M5 J4A
, ''Start of motorway''
,
, - style="text-align:center;"
, 1.4
1.6
, 2.3
2.6
, Bromsgrove A38
, J1
, ''No access (on-slip only)''
,
, - style="text-align:center;"
, 5.6
6.0
, 9.0
9.6
, Birmingham (S) A441
'' Hopwood Park services''
, J2
''Services''
, Birmingham (S) A441
'' Hopwood Park services''
,
, - style="text-align:center;"
, 8.4
, 13.5
, ''Entering Worcestershire''
, rowspan=2, J3
, Birmingham (S), Redditch, Evesham A435
, rowspan=2,
, - style="text-align:center;"
, 8.8
, 14.1
, Birmingham (S), Redditch, Evesham A435
, ''Entering Warwickshire''
, - style="text-align:center;"
, 11.7
12.2
, 18.8
19.7
, ''End of variable speed limit''
, rowspan=2, J3A
( )
Termination point M40
, ''Start of variable speed limit''
, rowspan=2,
, - style="text-align:center;"
,
,
, London, Warwick, Stratford M40
, London, Warwick, Stratford M40
, - style="text-align:center;"
,
,
, ''Entering Warwickshire''
,
, ''Entering West Midlands''
,
, - style="text-align:center;"
, 14.2
14.5
, 22.8
23.3
, Shirley A34
, J4
, Shirley A34
,
, - style="text-align:center;"
, 16.5
16.9
, 26.6
27.2
, Solihull A41
, J5
, Solihull A41
,
, - style="text-align:center;"
,
,
, ''No access (on-slip only)''
, J5a
,
Birmingham Airport A4545
,
, - style="text-align:center;"
, 19.9
20.3
, 32.1
32.7
, Birmingham (E), Birmingham International , Birmingham , National Exhibition Centre, Coventry A45
, J6
, Birmingham (E), Birmingham International , Birmingham , National Exhibition Centre A45(W)

Coventry (S & W), N.E.C. A45(E)
,
, - style="text-align:center;"
, 22.1
22.6
, 35.6
36.4
, ''No access (on-slip only)''
, J7
Southern M6 / M42 intersection
, The North West, Birmingham (C & N) M6(N)
,
, - style="text-align:center;"
,
,
, ''Entering West Midlands''
,
, ''Entering Warwickshire''
,
, - style="text-align:center;"
, 22.7
22.9
, 36.6
36.8
, ''No access''
, rowspan=2, J7A
( )
Northern M6 / M42 intersection
, London (M1), Coventry M6
,
, - style="text-align:center;"
,
,
, London (N & E) (M1), Coventry (N & E) M6
, ''No access (on-slip only)''
,
, - style="text-align:center;"
, 24.5
, 39.4
, Birmingham (Central, E, N & W) M6(N)
, J8
, ''No access (on-slip only)''
,
, - style="text-align:center;"
,
,
, ''No access (on slip only)''
, rowspan=3, J9
, The North West, Cannock, Lichfield M6 Toll
,
, - style="text-align:center;"
, rowspan=2 , 26.7
, rowspan=2 , 42.9
, ''Start of variable speed limit''
, Kingsbury A4097, Lichfield A446
, rowspan=2 ,
, - style="text-align:center;"
, The North West M6 Toll, Coleshill A446, A4097
, ''End of variable speed limit''
, - style="text-align:center;"
, 32.4
, 52.2
, Nuneaton, Tamworth A5, Lichfield (A38)
'' Tamworth services''
, J10
''Services''
, Nuneaton, Tamworth A5
'' Tamworth services''
,
, - style="text-align:center;"
,
,
, ''Entering Warwickshire''
,
, ''Entering Leicestershire''
,
, - style="text-align:center;"
, 39.7
, 63.9
, ''Start of motorway''
, rowspan=2, J11
''Services''
J11, A42
, Burton upon Trent, Measham A444
,
, - style="text-align:center;"
, 40.0
, 64.4
, Nuneaton A444
''Non-motorway traffic''
, ''End of motorway
Road continues as'' A42 ''towards East Midlands Airport''
,
, -
, colspan=6, Notes
*Distances in kilometres and carriageway identifiers are obtained from driver location signs/location marker posts. Where a junction spans several hundred metres and the data is available, both the start and finish values for the junction are shown.
, -

A42 junctions

{, border=1 cellpadding=2 style="margin-left:1em; margin-bottom: 1em; border-collapse: collapse; " class="wikitable"
, - align="center" bgcolor="00703C" style="color: #FFD200;"
, colspan="3" , A42 road junctions
, - align="center" bgcolor="000000" style="color: white"
, Northbound exits
, Junction
, Southbound exits
, - align="center"
, ''Road merges onto'' M1 ''continuing towards Nottingham''
, rowspan="2", M1 J23A
''Services''
, ''Start of road''
, - align="center"
, East Midlands , Nottingham ( S), Derby (A6) A453
'' Donington Park services''
, ''No access (on-slip only)''
, - align="center"
, Castle Donington A453
, J14
, ''No access (on-slip only)''
, - align="center"
, Ashby, Coalville, Leicester A511, Loughborough A512
, J13
, Ashby, Burton, Coalville A511
, - align="center"
, Snarestone B4116, Ashby
, J12
, Snarestone, Measham B4116
, - align="center"
, ''Start of road''
, rowspan="2", M42 J11
''Services''
, Nuneaton A444
''Non-motorway traffic''
, - align="center"
, Burton upon Trent, Measham A444
, ''Road continues as'' M42 ''towards Tamworth''

Coordinate list

Service stations

* Donington Park services

See also

*List of motorways in the United Kingdom
* :M42 motorway service stations
*Anomalously numbered roads in Great Britain

References

External links

The Motorway Archive – M42SABRE Roaders Digest – A42Road to Nowhere: A42BBC news article on Sky Vault

{{DEFAULTSORT:4-0042
Motorways in England
Transport in Leicestershire
Roads in Warwickshire
M4-0042
Roads in the West Midlands (county)