This is a brief introduction, including some of the background, to the first inter-urban motorway to be constructed in the UK. A more detailed description, of the events leading up to the award of the contracts, and of the motorway's construction can be found on the next page.
Berrygrove to Crick
The first stage to be built was that between Berrygrove and Crick. The London-Birmingham motorway was given priority because of the "immediate and very substantial relief which it could give to the two heavily overloaded trunk roads A5 and A6". The 74 miles of the London - Birmingham motorway to Crick constituted the "first full scale motorway to be constructed" in the UK and was in fact the southern part of the London-Yorkshire motorway, the M1.
The southern section from Berrygrove where the M1 joins the A41 to Beechtrees was built with a dual two-lane carriageway and by 1980 congestion at peak times on this section was severe. At Beechtrees the MI joins the M10, also a dual two-lane carriageway, which runs for a short distance southeast to join the A5 at Park Street. These lengths of M 1 and M 10 constitute the St Albans by-pass and were designed for the Ministry of Transport by the Hertfordshire County Council. The carriageways were of 11 in thick but in reinforced concrete on a sub-base normally 7 in thick and were the first motorways to be built with concrete surfaces. Because of heavy rain during construction problems arose with a hoggin sub-base where it was used by construction traffic soon after laying.
London - Yorkshire MotorwayNorth of Beechtrees to Pepperstock, the motorway was also designed for the Ministry by Hertfordshire County Council and was also of concrete construction, but the carriageway was dual three-lane as is the rest of the motorway. From Pepperstock north to Crick, design was carried out by consulting engineers Sir Owen Williams and Partners. These consultants had been commissioned in 1951 by the Ministry of Transport to carry out studies of a route for the London to Yorkshire motorway between St Albans and Doncaster, and in 1955 they were appointed to prepare a scheme for the length from Pepperstock to Crick with a short spur, the M45 connecting the M1 to the Dunchurch by-pass. The scheme was published in September 1955 and confirmed in 1956. Originally it was planned to provide dual two-lane carriageways but this was changed before the scheme was published to dual three-lane. This increased the overall cost by 20% and the land used by 10%, but was estimated to add at least 50% extra traffic capacity to the road.
The Ministry asked if construction could be completed in 19 months, i.e. in two summers instead of the three originally considered, and tenders were sought with these alternative periods of completion on a fixed price basis. The 55 mile length of route was divided into four sections for which tenders were sought and in the event John Laing and Son Ltd were successful tenderers for each of the four sections.
As with the St Albans by-pass, the wet summer of 1958 gave rise to construction problems. There was considerable difficulty with earthworks because of the wet and one of the suggestions by the contractors after the work was completes was that where a high rate of progress was called for, provision should be made in the Bill of Quantities for the cost of importing free-draining sub-base material for use when unfavourable weather conditions demanded it.
This section of motorway was constructed with a dry lean concrete base 14 in thick along the whole length over a 6 in thick sub-base. Hot rolled asphalt was used for both base course (2½ in) and wearing course (1½ in). Shoulders were 8 ft wide and of grass initially, but these were clearly inadequate both in width and strength and one half were changed to be of a stone-based surface treated type.
Bridges over the motorway were to a standard design and although they provoked some criticism of their appearance, perhaps because of the relatively 'heavy' design from using reinforced concrete, this died down with time. Standardization was important in enabling the contract to be completed within the tight time limits set up.
