The Thurcroft Interchange is a large motorway junction in

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a ceremonial and metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of Doncaster and Sheffield as well as the boroughs of Barnsley and Rotherham. In N ...

(the

Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham The Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham is a metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. It is named after its largest town, Rotherham, but also spans the outlying towns of Maltby, Swinton, Wath-upon-Dearne, Dinnington and also the vill ...

History

M1

Early designs for the M1 show the extension to Sheffield and Leeds at what is now the Aston Interchange (A57). The draft scheme for the 87 miles from Crick to Doncaster was first published on 8 January 1960, where the extension to Leeds was now north of the Aston Interchange; all the junctions shown are those that would be built. The route was fixed on 7 October 1960. The M1 north of Crick began construction in early August 1962. On 3 September 1962, the draft scheme for the 34-mile extension to Leeds was published; the section was known as the Sheffield-Leeds Motorway. The contract for junction 31 to 34 for £5,979,680 was awarded to Dowsett Engineering (Construction) Ltd (

Dow-Mac Tallington is a village and civil parish in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 497. It is situated east from Stamford and north-east from the centre of Peterbor ...

) on 16 June 1965. South of the interchange, the Barlborough to Thurcroft 7.2-mile £4.56m contract was awarded to Tarmac Civil Engineering Ltd in October 1965. The M1 section west of the junction and the M1 section south of the junction to Barlborough opened on 21 December 1967.

M18

On 26 January 1966, the £5,080,309 contract for an 8.5-mile section of the M18 was given to W. & C. French. At this time, 37 miles of the M1, north of Crick, were open to

Kegworth Kegworth () is a large village and civil parish in the North West Leicestershire district of Leicestershire, in the East Midlands region, England. It forms part of the border with Nottinghamshire and is situated 6 miles north of Loughborough, ...

Interchange (junction 24) from December 1965, and the M18 was expected to be built in two years. The northern part of the interchange was known as the ''Thurcroft Link'' or the ''Thurcroft Motorway Link''. The M18 section opened on 21 December 1967. The new section of the M1 from Barlborough to Thurcroft, and the M18, was 15.5 miles long.

Construction

Work began in mid-June 1965 for the 6.5-mile section between junction 31 at Aston and junction 34; it was the second section of the M1 in Yorkshire to be constructed, after the section from junctions 42-44 began in May 1965. It was planned to complete this section by the autumn of 1967. At this time, the main M1 was known as the

Crick Crick may refer to: Places * Crick, Monmouthshire, Wales * Crick, Northamptonshire, England * Crick Road, Oxford, England People with the name * Crick (surname) Other uses * Crick, the cricket from ''Beat Bugs'' * Francis Crick Institute ...

Doncaster Doncaster (, ) is a city in South Yorkshire, England. Named after the River Don, it is the administrative centre of the larger City of Doncaster. It is the second largest settlement in South Yorkshire after Sheffield. Doncaster is situated in ...

Motorway. Two hundred and seventy houses would be demolished near junction 34 of the M1. The design of the Sheffield-Leeds M1 extension, including the Thurcroft Interchange, was done by

West Riding County Council West Riding County Council (WRCC) was the county council of the Administrative counties of England, administrative county of the West Riding of Yorkshire from 1 April 1889 to 31 March 1974. The council met at County Hall, Wakefield, County Hall i ...

; it did not design the M18. The

prestressed concrete Prestressed concrete is a form of concrete used in construction. It is substantially "prestressed" ( compressed) during production, in a manner that strengthens it against tensile forces which will exist when in service. Post-tensioned concreted i ...

beams for the section of the M1 from junctions 31-34 were made by Dow-Mac at

Tallington Tallington is a village and civil parish in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 497. It is situated east from Stamford and north-east from the centre of Peterbor ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...

. Work began in October 1965 for the section of the M1 from Barlborough to Thurcroft. Work began in January 1966 for the M18 section north of the Thurcroft Interchange.

Structure

The eastern part (M18) of the interchange is in

Thurcroft Thurcroft is a village and civil parish situated south-east of Rotherham in the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham in South Yorkshire, England. From 1902 to 1991, it was a mining community. It has a population of 5,296, increasing to 6,900 at ...

, the western side (M1) is in

Ulley Ulley is a village and civil parish of the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham in South Yorkshire, England. The population of the civil parish as of the 2011 census was 172. It is located about south of the town of Rotherham and east of Sheff ...

, and the northern part (the main interconnecting slip roads) is in

Whiston, South Yorkshire Whiston is a village and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham in South Yorkshire, England. It has a population of 5,115, reducing to 5,042 at the 2011 Census. Originally a small rural village between Sheffield and Rotherham, ...

. The junction is barely one mile north of the

Aston Aston is an area of inner Birmingham, England. Located immediately to the north-east of Central Birmingham, Aston constitutes a ward within the metropolitan authority. It is approximately 1.5 miles from Birmingham City Centre. History Aston wa ...

Interchange ( A57, junction 31).

References

External links

* * {{South Yorkshire 1967 establishments in England Buildings and structures in the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham M1 motorway Motorway junctions in England Roads in Yorkshire Transport in South Yorkshire Transport infrastructure completed in 1967 Thurcroft