A4540 road

The A4540 is a Ring Road in Birmingham, England, also known as the Middle Ring Road, or the Middleway. There are proposals to make it a red route. It runs around the centre (St Philip's Cathedral) of the city at a distance of approximately 1 mile (1.6 km). Birmingham City Centre is the area within this ring road. The ring road was planned and designed by Herbert Manzoni. It is now simply known as the Ring Road due to the removal of the old Inner Ring Road.

Route

The A4540 covers the following route: –

• Ashted Circus (junction with A47--with pedestrian subway island)
• Lawley Middleway (with Curzon Circus in the middle)
• Garrison Circus
• Watery Lane Middleway
• Bordesley Circus (junction with A45)
• Bordesley Middleway
• Camp Hill Circus (junction with A41 Stratford Road)
• Highgate Middleway
• Haden Circus (junction with A4167 and A435)
• Belgrave Middleway
• Belgrave Interchange (junction with A441 followed by A38) Main road passes underneath interchange
• Lee Bank Middleway
• Islington Row Middleway
• Five Ways Island (junction with A456 which passes underneath island. Original plans showed the A4540 as passing under the roundabout but this was later changed, a move which is commonly viewed as a mistake and would have alleviated the heavy congestion at the island. Broad St/Hagley Rd (A456 road) runs under the island instead (Pedestrian subway through island)
• Ladywood Middleway

• Ladywood Circus
• Junction with A457
• Icknield Street
• (Heaton Street, a road which connects the A4540 to Hockley Circus and the junction with the A41)
• Boulton Middleway
• New John Street West
• Junction with A34 Newtown Row
• Newtown Middleway
• Dartmouth Circus (Roundabout with Aston Expressway and A38 Lichfield Rd) (Pedestrian subway through roundabout)
• Dartmouth Middleway

Pedestrian facilities

All but 4 of the numbered A4540 junctions have signal-controlled pedestrian crossings of the ring road. Dartmouth Circus, Ashted Circus and Five Ways have subways, whilst Bordeseley Circus has uncontrolled pedestrian crossing points despite often heavy traffic. There are mostly lightly used pavements around the entire ring road, though several busy side roads joining the ring road have only uncontrolled crossings for pedestrians. Some parts of the pavement (and the 3 subways) are designated cycle paths, although much of the rest of the pavement is used by cyclists illegally to avoid the heavy traffic and/or frequent roundabouts on the ring road.

Coordinates

See also

• A4040 road, the Outer Ring Road
• Transport in Birmingham

External links

• A4540 Red Route proposal