M40 MOTORWAY

The 'M40 motorway' is a motorway in the English transport network that connects London to Birmingham. Part of this road forms a section of the unsigned European route E05.
The M40 was constructed in stages with the first section being the Wycombe Bypass from Handycross to Stokenchurch (Junctions 4-5) opening in 1967. In 1969 a temporary junction (Junction 2
★ ) was built at Holtspur just outside of Beaconsfield that carried the motorway to the first section at Handycross (Junction 4). The Beaconsfield bypass (Junction 2) which was part of the motorway was built in 1971 and the Gerrards Cross Bypass (Junctions 1-2) connecting to this was completed in 1973. Junctions 5-8 Pitmore to Chilworth just outside of Oxford were completed in 1974. Construction from Birmingham to Oxford (the "missing link") started in 1988 from the M42 near Hockley Heath (Junction 3A) and finishing with construction through Warwickshire and the Cherwell Valley in 1990 linking Junction 3A to Junction 8. The motorway opened for its full length of 89 miles in 1990. The M40 was to be the last major motorway construction in the UK; however, during the final stages of construction the Conservative government of the time announced a major new road building scheme.

When the motorway was first opened it carried surprisingly little traffic (compared, for instance, to the M25, which was congested from the start). The reason was said to be the lack of motorway service areas, which kept HGV traffic in particular from using the route, the M1 and M6, or A34, being existing routes to Birmingham. The first service station opened at Cherwell Valley in 1994, and two further service stations opened at Oxford and Warwick in 1998. As a result, traffic is now much heavier. A major scheme procured under the Private Finance Initiative to upgrade the carriageway from 3 to 4 lanes between junctions 1A and 3 was completed by a Carillion / John Laing joint venture in October 1998.
The section of the M42 between junctions 3A and the M5 was going to be renumbered as part of the M40 when it was extended to Birmingham, and the junction was built with priority going to the now eastbound section of the M42 and the M40 towards London. However when the junction was opened, no renumbering took place.

Contents

Route

Junctions

Incidents

M40 minibus crash

August 2007 shooting

See also

References

External links

Route

The M40 begins at the Denham Roundabout near Uxbridge just east of the M25 and finishes at the M42 near Birmingham.
The A40 is a dual carriageway from the Inner Ring Road in Central London, and is one of the 2 busiest Western radials. Much of the traffic using the A40 heads along it to join the M40 to travel out of London. At junction 1 (the Denham Roundabout) on the outbound carriageway there is a lane drop to accommodate the non-motorway traffic. The mainline of the A40 carries on to become the M40 and it has 2 lanes and a hard shoulder on the outbound carriageway and 3 lanes and a hard shoulder on the London-bound carriageway. The motorway is carried over the top of the roundabout, which interchanges withe the A40 (A413,A412)(outbound), the A4020 (original route of the A40) and the A412 southbound. The original line of the A40 can be seen going straight through the roundabout.
The motorway then carries on for another half a mile before it reaches junction 1A, the free-flow interchange with the M25 London Orbital. It is a partially unrolled cloverleaf., with the smoothest turns allocated to the flow of traffic from the Londonbound M40, (traffic from Oxfordshire, Warwickshire and the wider West Midlands), to the anti-clockwise M25 (London Heathrow, Gatwick, The Channel Ports), and vice versa, since this was perceived to be (and is) the largest exchange of traffic between the two motorways.the M40 passes over the interchange, with the M25 on the bottom. The clockwise M25 enters the junction with 4 lanes and there is a lane drop to accommodate the traffic heading for the M40 westbound, and leaves the junction with 3 lanes. In contrast, the anti-clockwise M25 enters the junction with 3 lanes, and gains a lane from the Londonbound M40 to accommodate the extra traffic.
The Londonbound M40 enters with 4 lanes, with a lane drop for the M25 exit, and leaves with 3 lanes, and the westbound M40 enters with lanes and gains a lane from the anti-clockwise M25.
After junction 1A, the motorway is 4 lane, and carries on for another 3 miles until it reaches junction 2 for the A355 to Slough, and the A40 to Beaconsfield and Gerrard's Cross. Junction 2 is the standard roundabout interchange, with the mainline of the M40 running underneath. Aprroaching the junction, motorists are informed by way of gantry signs.
Junction 3 is another 3 miles further on, and serves the A40 for High Wycombe East and Loudwater. This is a restricted junction, being the only flow of traffic at this junction is from the westboumnd M40 to the A40, and from the A40 to the Londonbound M40. The westbound carriageway loses a lane here, remaining 3 lane for the rest of the route, and the Londonbound carriageway gains a lane. The now 3 lane motorway then immediately crosses the valley (and Loudwater) over a large ramp like bridge.
Junction 4 is the interchange with the A404 - A404 north for High Wycombe and A404 south for Marlow, Maidenhead, Reading, Windsor and the M4. The motorway through the junction was never widened from the original two lane when the rest of the motorway from junction 8 to London was, and so both carrigeways experience a termporary lane drop. The junction used to be a straightforward roundabout interchangewith exits for the M40 (west and east), High Wycombe (A404), the A4010, two local roads and the A404 dual carriagway to the south. However during 2007, work was completed to improve the junction which included extra stacking space on the sliproads from the M40, Provision for traffic from the A404 northbound to join the M40 westbound slip road without joining the roundabout and provision for the Londonbound M40 to skip the section of the roundabout which serves the A4010, High Wycombe and the A404 north.
Junction 5 is for the A40 and Stockenchurch. Junction 5 is the basic diamond interchange, and is also the fourth junction the M40 has had with the A40. 1 mile further on, the motorway passes though a large cutting, enters Oxfordshire and reaches junction 6 with the B4009 for Lewknor Watlington, and Chinnor. The junction is a variant on the diamond interchange, with the slip roads from the M40 south having sharp bends - upon leaving the M40 from the westbound carriegway there is an immedient turn of almost 90^o to the left and shortly after a sharp 90^o turn to the right before a junction with the B4009, and similarly when entering the Londonbound M40.
After 3 miles the motorway meets the first of three junctions in close succession. A spur off the M40 continues for a few miles before becoming the A40. Here the A40 heads off towards Cheltenham and Wales. The motorway now heads north on the newest section of the M40. It then goes through several important junction. J9 is for Bicester and is where the M40 meets the busy trunk roads, the A34 and the A41. J10 is for the A43 off towards Northampton. J11 is for Banbury.
The section between J9 and J10 is often the most busy, a problem compounded by the design of J10. The design is such that traffic from Northampton joining the Motorway has to cross the flow of traffic leaving the Motorway for Northampton. At peak times, the leaving traffic backs up, often spilling onto the carriageway itself causing delays ^[1].
The majority of the motorway is three lane, aside from a brief section through junction 4. The M40 was upgraded at its southern section from a two lane motorway in the 1990s which ended at the Stokenchurch junction. The M40 north of Oxford was a completely new section of motorway completed in the early 1990s. This section of the M40 is an notably undulating motorway, and also has a steep section near Princes Risborough descending towards the Cherwell Valley. There is also a unusually sharp left hand turn which is a reflection of the design process that had to account for the sensitive land the motorway was built through.
Further north, there are two incomplete junctions, at Leamington Spa (J13/14) and at Henley-in-Arden (J16) to discourage local traffic.
The motorway joins the M42 in both directions, with northbound traffic taking the left lane to exit eastbound, eventually forming the outer lanes of the M42 via a tight-bending two lane connecting road, and the right lanes being taken eastbound. Similarly, southbound, eastbound traffic from the M42 splits off from the outer two lanes, whereas westbound traffic of the M42 has a single lane, widening to a two lane slip road which merges with the middle lane and forms the outer lane of the southbound M40.

Junctions

'M40 Motorway'
Eastbound exits	Junction	Westbound exits
''Road continues as 'A40' to London''	J1 ()	Slough 'A412' Uxbridge 'A4020' ''Non motorway traffic''
Slough 'A412' Uxbridge 'A4020'		''Start of Motorway''
Watford, Rickmansworth, Slough, Heathrow Airport 'M25'	J1A	Watford, Rickmansworth, Slough, Heathrow Airport 'M25'
Beaconsfield, Amersham, Slough 'A355'	J2	Beaconsfield, Amersham, Slough 'A355'
''No exit''	J3	Loudwater and High Wycombe (East) 'A40' ''Exit only''
High Wycombe, Marlow, Maidenhead 'A404'	J4	High Wycombe, Marlow 'A404'
High Wycombe (West), Stokenchurch 'A40'	J5	Stokenchurch 'A40'
Watlington, Princes Risborough 'B4009'	J6	Thame, Watlington, Princes Risborough 'B4009'
''No Access''	J7	Thame, Wallingford, 'A329'
''No exit''	J8	Oxford, Cheltenham 'A40'
Thame, Aylesbury 'A418' Oxford ('A40') ''Oxford Services''	J8A	Thame, Aylesbury 'A418' Oxford ('A40') ''Oxford Services''
Bicester, Aylesbury 'A41' Oxford, Newbury 'A34'	J9	Bicester 'A41' Oxford, Newbury 'A34'
Northampton 'A43' 'B430' ''Cherwell Valley services''	J10	Northampton 'A43' 'B430' ''Cherwell Valley services''
Banbury 'A422' Daventry 'A361'	J11	Banbury 'A422' Chipping Norton 'A361'
Gaydon 'B4451'	J12	Gaydon 'B4451'
''Warwick Services''
''No exit''	J13	Leamington, Warwick 'A452' 'B4100'
Leamington 'A452'	J14	''No Access''
Warwick 'A429' Stratford, Coventry 'A46 (M69)'	J15	Warwick 'A429' Stratford, Coventry 'A46' (M69)
Henley 'A3400'	J16	''No exit''
''No exit''	M42 J3A ()	THE NORTH Birmingham (North & East) Solihull, NEC, Birmingham International Airport 'M42'
''Start of Motorway''		''Road continues as 'M42' to The SOUTH WEST, Birmingham (South & West), Redditch & 'M5'''

:''Note: The M40 runs south-east/north-west between Junctions 16 and 8''

Incidents

M40 minibus crash

Main articles: M40 minibus crash

Just before midnight on 17 November 1993, a minibus transporting 14 children from a proms concert in London back to Hagley RC High School near Birmingham crashed into a parked motorway maintenance vehicle. 10 pupils and the teacher driving the vehicle died at the scene; 2 others died in hospital from their injuries over the next two days. The remaining 2 children recovered from relatively minor injuries.
An inquest the following summer recorded a verdict of accidental death on all of the victims. It was reported that none of the children in the minibus were wearing seatbelts, and the side-facing benches seating layout was also criticised as dangerous. This led to seatbelts becoming compulsory equipment on all coaches and minibuses (more than 20 years after they had been compulsory on cars), and only recently (more than a decade on) becoming law for them to be worn.^[2]

August 2007 shooting

On 12 August 2007, a motor cycle rider was shot dead whilst travelling between junctions 12 and 13. The motorway was closed the afternoon and evening of August 12 2007, and the following day while police examined the scene.
Motorcyclist murdered on motorway: A motorcyclist has been shot dead while riding along the M40 in Warwickshire.
^[3] The victim has been identified as Canadian national Gerry Tobin and CCTV footage from immediately prior the incident has been released. Tobin was a member of the notorious Hells Angels Motorcycle gang on his way home from the Bulldog Bash. ^[4]

See also

★ List of motorways in the United Kingdom

References

1. http://www.cbrd.co.uk/badjunctions/40-43.shtml
2. http://www.dft.gov.uk/consultations/archive/2004/consbc/letteraboutseatbeltwearingin1241 Department for Transport Advisory Letter on Seatbelt Wearing
3.
M40 remains closed after shooting Andrew Ffrench

4. M40 murder: CCTV released

External links

★ TAB - Photos

★ Seven Natural Wonders of the South

★ CBRD Motorway Database - M40

★ Pathetic Motorways - A40(M) High Wycombe bypass

★ The Motorway Archive

★
★ Stokenchurch to Waterstock

★
★ In Buckinghamshire

★
★ Waterstock to Umberslade