Northern Radials
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The GLC's Ringway master plan had two key ingredients: the Ringways themselves, a series of concentric orbital motorways, and a series of improved motorways leading away - collectively termed the radials. To the north and north-east of London were to be four or five radial motorways, connecting the capital with the many regions and cities from Scotland and the north of England to East Anglia and Essex. Despite this, the range of existing radial routes seems under-served: there is little or nothing for the A10 corridor, and only a very distant chance of improvement for the A13.
This collection of proposals include only one route that was built as it was originally planned; this is, in fact, one that was planned and mostly complete by the demise of the Ringway proposals. Of the others, one was realigned to run several miles to the east following another all-too-frequent dispute between the GLC and the Ministry of Transport; one came incredibly close to being built, surviving in one form or another through to the 1990s, but ultimately came to nothing; and two others never really got off the drawing board.
