Spaghetti Junction, Birmingham, West Midlands
The Gravelly Hill Interchange or Junction 6 on the M6 is better known as Spaghetti Junction. The term is believed to have been coined by a journalist at the Birmingham Evening Mail in the 1970s. It is the junction where the M6, A38 and A5127 meet. It was opened in 1972 by the then Environment Secretary, Peter Walker. It cost £10m to build and is held up by nearly 600 concrete columns. It was the last piece of this part of the 1960s motorway network to be completed. The junction and the section of the M6 through Birmingham is carried on a three and a half mile long viaduct. It also carries the motorway over canals and railway lines. The coming of the motorway transformed the local area.
