The M45 is 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 ...

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire ( ; abbreviated Northants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshi ...

and

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Staffordshire and Leicestershire to the north, Northamptonshire to the east, Ox ...

, England and is long. It runs between junction 17 of the

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

south east of Rugby and a junction with the

A45 road The A45 is a major road in England. It runs east from Birmingham past the National Exhibition Centre and the M42 motorway, M42, then bypasses Coventry and Rugby, Warwickshire, Rugby, where it briefly merges with the M45 motorway, M45 until it ...

southwest of Rugby. It has one of the lowest traffic volumes of the United Kingdom motorway system.

History

Built in 1959 when the M1 (as part of a link from London to

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 ...

) went as far as Junction 18, the M45 was designed to dissipate some of the motorway traffic before the M1 terminated. Its equivalent at the southern end of the M1 is the former M10, which was downgraded on 1 May 2009 to become part of the A414. As the signposted route to Birmingham, accompanied by a boom in private motor ownership in the 1960s, the M45 (and its effective continuation, the final or so along the predominantly dual carriageway A45), formed a key leg of one of the busiest roads in Britain. In 1972, the opening of the M6 parallel to the north provided a much faster route through to the West Midlands from London. Most traffic diverted to this route, and since January 1991 additional West Midlands traffic, whether to the south of that region, or from the south side of London has often used the

M40 motorway The M40 motorway links London, Oxford, and Birmingham in England, a distance of approximately . The motorway is dual three lanes except for junction 1A to junction 3 (which is dual four lanes) a short section in-between the exit and entry hig ...

parallel to the south, leaving the route with only a fraction of its previous traffic. A limited-access junction (Eastbound exit and Westbound entry) was added in September 1991, around two-thirds of the way along from the M1, south of

Dunchurch Dunchurch is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Rugby, approximately south-west of central Rugby, Warwickshire, Rugby in Warwickshire, England. The civil parish, which also includes the nearby hamlet of Toft, Warwickshire, Toft, had ...

, the main southern suburban village (to Rugby) nearby. Apart from this, the motorway is very much in its 'as-built' condition and unlike its feeder motorway, the M1 its land use has not expanded, in a county that has three motorways running east–west almost wholly across it,

. The choice of routes means that logistics operations are an important part of the economy of

Coventry Coventry ( or rarely ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands county, in England, on the River Sherbourne. Coventry had been a large settlement for centurie ...

and Rugby.

Junctions

Data from driver location signs are used to provide distance and carriageway identifier information.Traffic England Live Traffic Condition Map
''Highways Agency'' – Locations extracted from Traffic Camera Popup identifier text. {, style="margin-left:1em; margin-bottom:1em; " class="wikitable" , - style="background:#0080d0; text-align:center; color:white; " , colspan="5" , M45 motorway junctions , - !scope=col, miles !scope=col, km !scope=col abbr="Westbound", Westbound exits (A carriageway) !scope=col, Junction !scope=col abbr="Eastbound", Eastbound exits (B carriageway) , - style="text-align:center;" , 7.7 , 12.4 ,

, Rugby, A45

B4429 , J1 , ''Start of motorway'' , - style="text-align:center;" , 6.0 , 9.7 , No access , ,

Daventry Daventry ( , ) is a market town and civil parish in the West Northamptonshire unitary authority area of Northamptonshire, England, close to the border with Warwickshire. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 Census, Daventry had a populati ...

A45 , - style="text-align:center;" , , , ''Entering

'' , , ''Entering

'' , - style="text-align:center;" , 0.1 , 0.2 , ''Start of motorway'' , M1, J17 , The south,

Northampton Northampton ( ) is a town and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England. It is the county town of Northamptonshire and the administrative centre of the Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority of West Northamptonshire. The town is sit ...

M1 , - , colspan=5, 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. , -

Notes

External links

Motorway Database – M45Pathetic Motorways – M45Rural Roads – M45 article
{{DEFAULTSORT:4-0045 Motorways in England Roads in Warwickshire

History

Junctions

See also

Notes

External links