Construction Birmingham's inner ring road was first planned by
Herbert Manzoni in 1943 and an
act of Parliament, the
Birmingham Corporation Act 1946 (
9 & 10 Geo. 6. c. lii), permitting construction was passed in 1946. Due to financial controls, construction of the first part of the ring road, Smallbrook Queensway, did not begin until 1957, and the first section opened in 1960.
Queen Elizabeth II formally opened the completed ring road on 7 April 1971, but mistakenly named the whole route
Queensway during her speech instead of just one tunnel; as a result the entire ring road became officially known as
Queensway. One carriageway of the St Chads underpass of was formally opened by
Lord Mayor of Birmingham, Ald. Charles Simpson on 27 May 1968. To aid motorists transition from the darker tunnel to daylight the underpass walls had graduated shades of colour. The northbound carriageway, though complete was not opened to traffic until November 1969 because road connections had yet to be finalised. Two months later a 40 miles per hour limit was agreed by the city council and Department of Environment for the
A38 section from St Chads underpass and the Queensway tunnel through to Bristol Street. Following a number of fatal accidents in the St Chads tunnel, the northbound carriageway of which has a sharp right hand bend, its speed limit was reduced to 30 miles per hour in February 1976. In 1978 the West Midlands County Surveyor reported potential safety problems caused by the use of
high alumina cement in construction of the St Chad's Circus underpass roof. In 1979 the underpass was closed for two months to allow strengthening work on high alumina cement beams.
Later years and dismantlement , on Smallbrook Queensway. After 1988, following the so-called "Highbury Initiative" meeting, the city council sought to recreate links between the city centre and the neighbouring areas, enlarging the city centre and improving the pedestrian environment across the city, with an emphasis on shifting vehicular movements out to
The Middleway. Starting in the 1990s, some of Queensway has been altered in order to reverse the earlier strict separation of road and pedestrian traffic with a view to providing a more attractive environment for pedestrians, deter through traffic, and reducing the severance effects of the Inner Ring Road. For example, the pedestrian subway between Hurst Street and Hill Street was removed in 1993. Further plans for breaking up the ring road were integrated into the
Bull Ring redevelopment proposals. The
Masshouse Circus was demolished in 2002. In early 2008, the St Chads Queensway area near the
St. Chad's Cathedral was modified to remove pedestrian underpasses and bring all pedestrian and car traffic back on to the traditional street level. These redevelopments were championed by the city council as breaking the 'concrete collar' around the city centre (especially in the
Masshouse area), with the aim of making the city more friendly to pedestrian navigation, and improving the aesthetic appearance of the city. Some motorists, however, bemoan the reduction of road capacity and point to the regular congestion on the remodelled sections. Controversially, pedestrian crossings are replacing underpasses. According to the Birmingham
Big City Plan published in 2011, the Ring Road had restricted open spaces, growth and economic activity, and made the city centre more crowded and harder to navigate. Birmingham had a small city centre compared to other UK cities at the time. The A4400 still exists as the surface level road where the A38 runs in tunnels.
List of roads The Inner Ring Road previously consisted of the following roads (anticlockwise from
A38(M) approach (Aston Expressway)): •
St Chads Queensway (now A38) • Lancaster Circus Queensway • St Chads Circus Queensway • Paradise Circus Queensway, below the former
Birmingham Central Library (now A38) • Great Charles Queensway (now A38) • Suffolk Street Queensway (now A38) • Holloway Circus Queensway (now A38) •
Smallbrook Queensway (unclassified) • St Martin's Queensway (demolished to make way for new
Bullring development) • Moor Street Queensway (now B4100) rebuilt into "Bus mall" renamed Moor Street Ringway •
James Watt Queensway (now B4114) •
Masshouse Circus Queensway, formerly roundabout over James Watt Queensway (demolished). The following roads named Queensway were within the ring itself: • Priory Queensway • Snow Hill Queensway == Queensway today ==