m40 migrants 

I didnt think I would ever be blogging about service stations but here goes ... apparently the Portugese community made their way up to Leamington as a result of the M40 and work in the service stations along the route. 

M40's first service station opened as Cherwell Valley services in 1994 on the site of temporary toilet areas which had been created when the motorway was constructed.

The M40 had been expected to be the last major motorway constructed in the UK, but during the final stages of construction the Conservative government announced a major new road building scheme (Roads for Prosperity); much of which was later cancelled after major road protests.

Beginning in 1997, the motorway was widened to dual four lane between junctions 1A and 3 (High Wycombe East) under a Private Finance Initiative. It was completed by a Carillion-John Laing joint venture in October 1998, less than the original plan which would have included widening the section between Junctions 3 and 4. Oxford services and Warwick Services opened in 1998.

Work to separate local and long distance traffic at junction 4 was completed in 2007. The work included a new dedicated left turn slip lane between the A404 Marlow Bypass and the Oxford-bound M40; additional lanes to the M40 slip roads entering the roundabout; an additional lane between the A404 Marlow Hill and the London-bound M40; and a five lane cross link to assist traffic movements between the M40 and the A404(S).

In 2009 the Highways Agency extended the Active Traffic Management (ATM) system that was previously introduced on the M42 motorwayonto the northbound carriageway of the M40 from junction 16 through to the junction with the M42. Beaconsfield services (near the site of the original proposed service station almost 40 years earlier) opened in 2009.





Cherwell Valley   +  Oxford   +   Warwick   +  Beaconsfield