For half a century, Gravelly Hill Interchange – affectionately known as Spaghetti Junction – has divided opinion. Opening to much acclaim on May 24 1972, it was the final piece in a major infrastructure project designed to connect several major routes (the M1, M5 and M6) at the heart of England’s new motorway system.
Significantly, the complex, layered concrete and steel structure – whose principal engineer was the London-born architect Evan Owen Williams – brought together national and local highways, ushering traffic into the city of Birmingham via the multi-lane Aston Expressway. It has always been more than just a traffic junction, though.
An engineering marvel, it came at some cost to local communities and the environment. To make way for its 12,655 tons of structural steel and 175,000 tons of concrete, 146 houses were demolished.
