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M1 celebrates 50 years

The first section of the M1 - from Watford to the Watford Gap - is 50 years old today.

The M1 was Britain's first full-length motorway - and the first stretch opened on the 2nd of November, 1959.

Traffic was able to legally drive above 60mph for the first time, in fact, there was no speed limit at all, although most cars struggled to even get above 50mph back then!   Consequently, overheating and blown engines were the most common call-outs to recovery firms.

One of the motorway's first AA breakdown patrolmen, Stan Hallard told heart, "I remember "AC Cobra" cars being legally driven down the new M1, at more than 150mph".

However, Stan says that most cars of the day were simply not designed for sustained high speed driving: “We would often go out to cars where the engine had literally blown up – people would naively drive flat-out in cars that often only had a basic one-litre engine with no temperature gauge. One trip on the motorway could be the death knell of a car.”

Safety equipment was limited and the hard shoulder relatively narrow and soft, so stricken cars were often just towed off the motorway – sometimes in convoy with a stricken vehicle on tow at the rear and another at the front, pushed down the hard shoulder using special rubber bumpers.

It was called the London-Yorkshire Motorway at the time, as planners had already proposed the motorway should go as far as Doncaster - although today it ends at Leeds.

The M1 opened between j5-18 (Watford & Rugby/Crick) and it was another 7 years before it was then extended south towards London - taking the motorway down to Elstree, Scratchwood (now the London Gateway Service Area) - and eventually onto Staples Corner in 1977.  The M1 was originally planned to continue down to West Hampstead.

RECENT IMPROVEMENTS

The 10-mile stretch between the M25 and Luton was widened to 4 lanes between the M25 and Luton (j6a and 10).  It cost £294m and included the construction of new parallel roads by Hemel Hempstead (j8) for local traffic, widening or replacement of 11 underbridges and replacing 7 overbridges.

IMPROVEMENTS TO COME

By 2013, 15 miles of the M1 will be widened, not by adding extra lanes, but by using the hard-shoulder between j10-13 (Luton Aiport to the A421 Bedford/MK). Even though the existing carriageway would be used, it would still cost up to £326m to covert the hard-shoulder and to improve junction 13.

THE FUTURE

The engineers who designed the M1 estimated traffic of 20,000 cars per day but it now carries up to 140,000. Without upgrades, it is estimated that traffic on the M1 will flow at between 50mph and 60mph in peak periods by 2025 and will be stop-start on many sections.

Experts predict,  by 2030, it is likely that most of the M1 will be ‘widened’ through ‘active traffic management’ using variable speed limits, traffic control and hard shoulder running.

During this period, technology will move forward and many vehicles will be equipped with electronics that communicate with the ‘road’ e.g. autopilot-type speed control and ‘platooning’ (when groups of vehicles ‘lock together’ by radar cruise control). Cars will likely produce around half the CO2 they do now – many will be hybrids or use hydrogen fuel cells – and service areas will undoubtedly have electric vehicle recharging points or battery exchange facilities.

THE M1 IN THE NEWS

2005 - December.  An 18-mile stretch of the motorway was closed following the explosion and major fire at the Buncefield Oil Depot, less than half a mile from the M1.

2002.  The M1 near Milton Keynes was cleared of traffic, using mobile police roadblocks, to allow the filming of the movie 28 Days Later (which inspired the Will Smith remake, I am Legend).

1997 - September.  The northbound carriageway was closed between London and Northamptonshire - to allow for the funeral procession of Diana, Princess of Wales. For the first time on any motorway, police allowed pedestrians along almost the entire length of the route - to pay their respects.

1989 - January.  A Boeing 737 crashed onto the embankment next to the motorway as it attempted an emergency landing at East Midlands Airport in Leicestershire, killing 47 passengers.

1959 - November.  The first cars use Britain's first full-length motorway - with no central reservation crash barriers!

More facts and figures

* The M1 was designed for an original capacity of 13,000 to 14,000 vehicles per day.  Today it carries up to 140,000

* 193 miles in length

* 20 million tonnes of earth and rock excavated to build road

* 5,000 road builders brought to work on double-decker buses with workers' canteens needed every 2.5 miles

* In 1959, it cost £50m to build

Has anything extraordinary happened to you on the M1?  What strange things have you seen?  Let us know!