M45 motorway

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M45 motorway
Length	8 miles 12.5 km
Direction	East - West
Start	Watford Gap
Primary destinations	Rugby Coventry
End	Thurlaston
Construction dates	1959 - entire motorway
Motorways joined	M1 motorway

Bridge carrying disused Great Central Railway is in distance.

One of the original Owen Williams bridges

The M45 is a motorway in Warwickshire, England and is 8 miles (12.5km) long. It runs from Junction 17 of the M1 motorway south east of Rugby and ends with a junction with the A45 road south-west of Rugby. It is one of the least busy parts of the United Kingdom motorway system.

1 History
2 Junctions
3 See also
4 Notes
5 External links

[edit] History

It was built in 1959, when the M1 (as part of a link from London to Birmingham) went as far as Junction 18; the M45 was designed to dissipate some of the motorway traffic before the M1 terminated^[1]. Its equivalent at the southern end of the M1 is the M10.

As the signposted route to Birmingham in the 1960s it was one of the busiest roads in Britain. However in 1972, the opening of the M6 provided a much faster route through to the West Midlands from London. Most traffic diverted to this route, leaving the M45 with only a fraction of its previous traffic.

A limited-access junction (Eastbound exit and Westbound entry) was added in September 1991^[2] around two-thirds of the way along from the M1, near Dunchurch.

[edit] Junctions

M45 Motorway
Westbound exits	Junction	Eastbound exits
Coventry, Rugby, A45 Dunchurch B4429	J1	Start of motorway
No exit	Unnumbered	Daventry A45
Start of Motorway	M1 J17	THE SOUTH, Northampton M1

[edit] See also

List of motorways in the United Kingdom

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

	Motorways in the United Kingdom
Great Britain: M1 • M2 • M3 • M4 • M5 • M6 • M6 Toll • M8 • M9 • M10 • M11 • M18 • M20 • M23 • M25 • M26 • M27 • M32 • M40 • M42 • M45 • M48 • M49 • M50 • M53 • M54 • M55 • M56 • M57 • M58 • M60 • M61 • M62 • M65 • M66 • M67 • M69 • M73 • M74 • M77 • M80 • M90 • M180 • M181 • M271 • M275 • M602 • M606 • M621 • M876 • M898
A1(M) • A3(M) • A38(M) • A48(M) • A57(M) • A58(M) • A64(M) • A66(M) • A74(M) • A167(M) • A194(M) • A308(M) • A329(M) • A404(M) • A601(M) • A627(M) • A823(M)

	Northern Ireland: M1 • M2 • M3 • M5 • M12 • M22 • A8(M)	edit

Past: M16 • M41 • M63 • A18(M) • A40(M) • A41(M) • A102(M) • A6144(M) Unbuilt: M12 • M13 • M15 • M31 • M64 Future: M4 Toll