Queensway (Birmingham)

Queensway, in Birmingham, England, most often refers to the Queensway Tunnel, a long road tunnel in the centre of the city. The tunnel forms part of the designated A38, which locally is a major carriageway that cuts through Birmingham city centre. "Queensway" as a suffix is also the name of several other roads and circuses in the city (such as Smallbrook Queensway); all these roads including the tunnel collectively made up what was once called the Inner Ring Road, an orbital dual carriageway which has now been dismantled.

The old Inner Ring Road, which was also referred to as the "Queensway" and designated as the A4400 road, was completed and opened in 1971. Described as an "urban motorway" (although it was not officially designated as a motorway), it featured largely grade separated junctions and most of them allowed vehicles staying on the road to pass over or under those using the junction. Pedestrians were kept physically separate from vehicular traffic and used subways to cross the ring road. Although seen as revolutionary when first opened, the 'Concrete Collar', as it became known, was viewed by council planners as an impenetrable barrier for the expansion of the city centre. By the 1990s, changes were made to the road as the council sought to improve pedestrian links, and vehicular movements were increasingly shifted out to the Middleway. The Inner Ring Road was effectively dismantled in the early 2000s, with many of its roads having been rebuilt and downgraded to surface-level streets, resulting in them resembling city streets far more. The Queensway Tunnel and St Chad's Tunnel, as well as the Lancaster Circus and Suffolk Street flyovers, are remaining relics of the ring road and make up most of the present A38 carriageway in this area.

History of the Inner Ring Road

Construction

Birmingham's inner ring road was first planned by Herbert Manzoni in 1943 and an act of Parliament, the Birmingham Corporation Act 1946 ( 9 & 10 Geo. 6. c. lii), permitting construction was passed in 1946. Due to financial controls, construction of the first part of the ring road, Smallbrook Queensway, did not begin until 1957, and the first section opened in 1960. Queen Elizabeth II formally opened the completed ring road on 7 April 1971, but mistakenly named the whole route ''Queensway'' during her speech instead of just one tunnel; as a result the entire ring road became officially known as ''Queensway.''

One carriageway of the St Chads underpass of was formally opened by Lord Mayor of Birmingham, Ald. Charles Simpson on 27 May 1968. To aid motorists transition from the darker tunnel to daylight the underpass walls had graduated shades of colour. The northbound carriageway, though complete was not opened to traffic until November 1969 because road connections had yet to be finalised. The Queensway tunnel opened on 7 April 1971 during the inaugaration of the complete ring road.

Early years

In August 1973, Birmingham police said the underpasses and tunnels of the inner ring road were technically de-restricted, but that a 30 miles per hour speed limit applied on surface stretches, however, the Automobile Association disagreed saying the speed limit applied on all; a spokesman for the Department of Environment said only the courts could decide. ''The Birmingham Post'' called the situation "ghastly" and the fact it had continued for two years "defies comprehension". Two months later a 40 miles per hour limit was agreed by the city council and Department of Environment for the A38 section from St Chads underpass and the Queensway tunnel through to Bristol Street. Following a number of fatal accidents in the St Chads tunnel, the northbound carriageway of which has a sharp right hand bend, its speed limit was reduced to 30 miles per hour in February 1976.

In 1978 the West Midlands County Surveyor reported potential safety problems caused by the use of high alumina cement in construction of the St Chad's Circus underpass roof. In 1979 the underpass was closed for two months to allow strengthening work on high alumina cement beams.

Later years and dismantlement

After 1988, following the so-called "Highbury Initiative" meeting, the city council sought to recreate links between the city centre and the neighbouring areas, enlarging the city centre and improving the pedestrian environment across the city, with an emphasis on shifting vehicular movements out to The Middleway. Starting in the 1990s, some of Queensway has been altered in order to reverse the earlier strict separation of road and pedestrian traffic with a view to providing a more attractive environment for pedestrians, deter through traffic, and reducing the severance effects of the Inner Ring Road. For example, the pedestrian subway between Hurst Street and Hill Street was removed in 1993. Further plans for breaking up the ring road were integrated into the Bull Ring redevelopment proposals. The Masshouse Circus was demolished in 2002. In early 2008, the St Chads Queensway area near the St. Chad's Cathedral was modified to remove pedestrian underpasses and bring all pedestrian and car traffic back on to the traditional street level.

These redevelopments were championed by the city council as breaking the 'concrete collar' around the city centre (especially in the Masshouse area), with the aim of making the city more friendly to pedestrian navigation, and improving the aesthetic appearance of the city. Some motorists, however, bemoan the reduction of road capacity and point to the regular congestion on the remodelled sections. Controversially, pedestrian crossings are replacing underpasses. According to the Birmingham Big City Plan published in 2011, the Ring Road had restricted open spaces, growth and economic activity, and made the city centre more crowded and harder to navigate. Birmingham had a small city centre compared to other UK cities at the time. The A4400 still exists as the surface level road where the A38 runs in tunnels.

List of roads

The Inner Ring Road previously consisted of the following roads (anticlockwise from A38(M)

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