Saturday, September 20, 2014

Building the ring road of death

 
 
I don't like driving in Coventry. Given the option I'll take the bus and let someone else navigate.
 
The reason for my nervousness is the ring road surrounding the city centre. The ring road of death was built 40 years ago, in an age when it seemed only sensible to place thick concrete barriers either side of the tarmac with short gaps to allow traffic on and off at the same time.
 

3 comments:

Andy in Germany said...

We have a similar road in a town near here: the medieval centre made it through the war relatively unscathed, which considering Stuttgart was flattened was quite an achievement.

Then the local government flattened 200 houses for a ring road...

Iain Robinson said...

Thanks for the link to these amazing photos, Phil. Good to see those ERF's and Fodens, but the best for me is the wonderful Atkinson Viewline. And of course, no hard hats, etc...lol

Phil Parker said...

I thought you'd enjoy these Iain. Facinating and now vintage heavy haulage. I wonder if we'll look at today's machines in the same way?

It also fascinates me the optimisim with which this project is carried out. At the time, this WAS a bright new future...