A fantastic documentary. I worked on the M77 extension, (Glasgow) in 1996. The site was 7 miles,(approx) in length with, if I remember correctly, 26 structures (it may have been more). It’s an experience I’ll never forget, I enjoyed it immensely, we started at 7-30 am & the Work Day finished around 7. That was 6 days a week, I had to travel 50 miles to work, so your Life became the Project, I’m sure that all or almost all the people that have worked on these Civil Engineering Projects have poignant & great memories of them, they are unique, it’s difficult to put into words but the combination of the sheer scale of the challenges & the tremendous energy & commitment of all that are involved, and the large numbers of earth moving plant, they have a tremendous & infectious energy. They are a reflection of what people can achieve. I’m sure that down the ages many would share the same feeling about the great civil engineering builds. Brilliant. But as some have pointed out, people by and large don’t really appreciate the level of commitment needed to realise these great projects.

"Driving in Britain is never going to be the same again" aye your right their mate !

'On time and on budget', words you never hear these days.

110 miles of carriageway, 200 bridges and culverts, all completed in just 19 months, we can't even build 1 mile in that time today.

This was an excellent series! My favourite motorway is the M45 - still rarely a car in sight most of the time!

I worked on the M5 in the late 60s. I can confirm that the Euclid drivers were, to a man, bonkers. One day, I was at the top of a bridge column in the middle of the road, when a Euc driver came so close, he knocked down the ladder I'd used to climb up. As he drove past, he was laughing like a drain. Totally mad.

My late father had the distinction of being the first soldier to be stopped by the military police for speeding on the M1😀

What a fantastic history documentary many thanks for uploading

Great documentary thank you for uploading. It still amazes me what human beings are capable of.

It is so nice that they have credited the Preston bypass as being the first motorway in Britain. So many people who produce documentaries and people who are London based, think that the M1 was the first motorway. They work this out on the basis of the M1 being the first motorway, the M2 being the second, the M3 being the third, etc., etc. The M6 was built to relieve the A6 trunk road of traffic and the M1 to relieve the A1. The M6 is the longest motorway in the country.

The corrupt Ernst Marples. Let’s never forget that.

Honestly, years now to do a pot hole, a junction, a new stretch of motorway, decades for HS2 and most of the times stuff never gets done. Also my grandfather worked on the M54. Even at the time he thought it was a bit daft it only went to join the M6 south, not the North. Possibly objected to too much and would have gone through too many homes or areas of interest.

Nicely presented very enjoyable thank you

Loads still have no idea how to join a motorway they think doing 40 is acceptable It is NOT

No modern British government (blue or red) could ever build anything for Britain again, let alone legacies like the motorways or the NHS.

When I was a nipper -In school holidays I used to go with my dad in his Albion tipper to the quarries in mendips -Pick up the load and drop it off at split level on the M5 just past Bristol -Oh happy days

And Jonathon Glancey, so eloquent. Totally enjoyable to listen to, in this great documentary.

The aspect ratio is wrong - it's a 16:9 programme, but someone has managed to upload it as 4:3...

i thoroughly enjoyed this documentary about British civil engineering.

You will not get any roads constructed in Wales now because of Labour run policies. And now we have 20mph on our roads

amazing that the signs were that good they have never strayed from it since…

I remember the highways back in the early 80's. At night there were very little traffic. I emigrated to the U.S in 1990 and every time I returned to the U.K it got busier and busier to the point of unbearable. I feel bad for you guys

Marples....transport minister and also on the board of construction firm Laing....hang on a minute....nothing changes then

Hard to believe now but : No speed limit and no central barriers. No seat belts. Couple all that with rear view mirrors that were nowhere near up to the job and it’s a wonder there wasn’t carnage from day one.

My grandfather Fred built the M1 on his own , he had some stuff left over from a job down the road !

That sounds very much like Jack Walker, aka Dixon of Dock Green doing the 50's commentary.

Such a shame this documentary isn't available on DVD

8:27 When drunk driving was all the rage

Just look at the Bus them Men Travel in to go Work

If you want to experience or even miss the 1960s traffic stricken small town centre experience just visit Lyndhurst on the eastbound A35 from Bournemouth or The West during the summer school holidays . Situated on the now back road towards non M27 southampton the village stinks of traffic fumes on a still day & whilst sitting there in a mile tailback you can enjoy the unspectacular, un scenic suburban housing surrounding the decaying facades of the grimy high street which must reflect exactly how life in little places on main roads used to be - hideous ! 😁👍

but of course! the fella walking the painting trolley for highway lines: I'd forgot about this labour ---- moving back to my homeland here, the post-winter repaintings used to occur early-spring, but now the cleptoparasitic barons hereabouts wait until sometime w a y after Midsummer's Day

Let us not forget the chap who invented the motorways and the VW beetles to use them. From 1936, how it all went wrong, could have been european comission then, but less democratic than now of course.

I love stuff like this 💙

Great :)

To get a good idea of what the UK's transport infrastructure looked like in the early 1970's, check out the 'video' for Black Sabbath's 'Sabbath Bloody Sabbath'! Very atmospheric. Great shots of queues of buses on Birmingham's Bull Ring, and what I think is Drax power station (unbeatable name!) in Yorkshire. (I know a power station isn't 'transport infrastructure', but there's a great view of it from the motorway!) [EDIT: Someone appears to have re~edited it - not to great effect, imo - and unfortunately much of the footage taken, literally, 'on the road' has been lost; still well worth a watch, though!]

16 and a half million for a motorway! Wonder how much that would be today and also if it compares to the relative amount. Of course you would have to factor in the cost of corruption these days eh? Yeah, don’t we know it. Got to grease those politician’s palms. I love this film, not a lazy, self serving, work-shy arsehole in sight.

WIMPEY = We Import More Paddy's Each Year

Although there was no speed limit at the beginning, the average car of that day typically was barely able to keep up 100km/h. They'd be screaming along. Some exceptions were there of course, but if your car was able to get to 130km/h you had a fast one.

Tip top editing at the end, the RA....

I’m Fairly Sure My Great, Great Grandad Built The Original M1!

If only the roads were as empty now !!These days doesn't matter what time of day or night you travel, it's like a bloody car park for lorries !! Especially when the sods insist on overtaking the one in front at about 3mph more and sits in the fast lane for ages holding everyone else up. Pain in the arse :O)

why are at least half the people in this not directly involved in the building ie people geografy and such urban planners etc

A bridge completed every 8 days?? it would take a year now!!!

nice

The cars were not as slow as claimed in this video. Most 4 cylinder cars could do 70 mph back then and many could do 90 plus.

Does anyone know what the documentary was called (also from the BBC) which went into detail about UK Motorway and general highway signage? It featured Ms Calvert (one of the original designers) and talked about the science and psychology about the design and typeface for road transport in this country.

Just spotted Jacob Rees Mogg at 10.15

My uncle told me of all the broken down cars after enthusiastic drives down the new road.

Even back then Dude Driving cabriolet with family is lane hogging

2022 and it took them 6 yrs to make j18 - j16 hard shoulder into a live lane...pathetic

Squeezed picture, ya need switch setting to letterbox

Even when it first opened there was mastoids hogging the outside lane lol .

We need to get back to this out roads have been clogged with anti car councils cycle ways etc. It's time for the nation to wakeup and put cars and roads at the heart of out transport system. Time to open up the dual carriage ways again remove the buses and cycle lines .

telling introduction by its first motorist .. autoroutes're SO fuckingly boring, I more often miss my exit .. although Montana's freeways across prairie were thrilling for their absence of daytime speed limit --- the expressways criss-crossing our urban strip of valleys were impressive to come back to during the early-Eighties, yet the ROW broadenings now seen along the BI's trunk routes there are jaw-dropping..!

7:29 first ever dash cam

24:50

Got to love interviewing a bunch of people not even close to being alive at the time second guessing as if they were there what it was like. Typical BBC.

Folk had better driving skills in the 50’s and they only had 8 flamin miles of motorway !!!

27:29 : B.S!

28:40 : B.S! Stop changing history!! Max speed 50 mph!!! Utter BS!!

I blame the Muslims

Wrong aspect ratio. What a waste. Same as the other upload.

Distorted images make it unwatchable.

A very interesting video of the building of britains 1st motorway of the Preston by pass in 1956! 😎