Underneath Spaghetti Junction - A Trip by Bicycle

Having driven on it numerous times, I’ve often wondered what lurks beneath the concrete behemoth that is Spaghetti Junction. So, on a Friday evening in August, I popped on my bike to find out. Please note, there’s nothing professional about this video; it’s just me on a bike with a GoPro strapped to my head.

Some background.
Spaghetti Junction (officially called Gravelly Hill Interchange) in Birmingham is where the M6, A38 and A5127 meet. It’s a colossal 30-acre, multi-level 1970s network of highways, viaducts and columns (over 550 of them) and it weaves its way over and around two rivers a railway line, three canals and numerous footpaths.

Here’s four facts I like.

The whole thing cost £10m to build (£150,000000 in today’s money)

Spaghetti Junction was Britain’s first motorway interchange without roundabouts or traffic lights.

The pillars carrying the junction over the canal network had to be carefully placed to allow a horse-drawn narrowboat to pass underneath without fouling its towrope.

In its 50-year history, the junction has carried 2 billion vehicles.