page_title: M32 motorway
section_title: Construction
hierarchical_section_title: M32 motorway / History / Construction
caption_attribution_description: English: The southern end of the M32 motorway in Bristol, Gloucestershire, England, looking southbound. The area between the southbound exit for junction 3 and the point at which the M32 becomes the A4032 is shown (the sign in the middle indicates the approaching end of motorway regulations). The slip road which comes off the M32 at junction 3 and leads up to a roundabout over the road (bridge seen in the distance) can be seen on the left. On the right is the northbound entrance for junction 3, a service road, and over the fence Galton Road.
context_page_description: The M32 is a motorway in South Gloucestershire and Bristol, England, which at roughly 4.4 miles is one of Britain's shortest. It provides a link from the M4, a major motorway linking London and South Wales, to Bristol city centre and is maintained by Highways England, the national roads body.
  The motorway was planned concurrently with the M4 in the 1960s, and construction was complete to Eastville in northeast Bristol by 1970. The southernmost section was delayed by engineering challenges and industrial action, and did not open until 1975. Since the mid-2000s, there have been plans to use the M32 as part of a park and ride facility which would reduce congestion in Bristol.
  Though the M32 has a small traffic flow, it is one of the most congested motorways in the region as it connects a number of key areas. As well as providing one of the few high-quality routes into the centre of Bristol, it is the only significant link from the M4 to the A4174 Bristol Ring Road. Parts of the M32 are reaching the end of their intended lifespan, leading to reduced speed limits and occasional closures for remedial work.
context_section_description: The M32 was planned to be a key radial link through to the hub of a network of radial and ring roads within a rectangle encompassing Bristol. Other bounds of this scheme were parts of the M4 (north eastern side), the M5 (north western side) and the tidal reaches of the River Avon (south western side), the south eastern side not being defined by landmarks. The motorway was partly funded by Gloucestershire County Council and Bristol City Council, with a 75 per cent grant supplied by the national Ministry of Transport. It was provisionally called the Hambrook Spur or the Bristol Parkway during construction and was built in three distinct stages between 1966 and 1975. 
  The first section, from the M4 to junction 1, opened concurrently with that motorway in September 1966. The second section, through to junction 2, was a co-operative design between the Gloucestershire County Surveyor and the design consultants Freeman Fox & Partners. Construction was awarded to Sir Robert McAlpine, who began work in June 1968. The northern section was designed as a full-speed (70-mile-per-hour (110 km/h)) motorway as far as Eastville, after which the motorway ran on an elevated section with a lower design standard. This section was opened by the Secretary of State for Transport, John Peyton in July 1970. The total cost was £3 million (now £47 million). In 1972, a polystyrene storage depot on Muller Road near junction 2 caught fire, leading to the closure of the southbound M32 for six days.
  The third section was the most technically demanding, as it ran through heavily built-up urban areas and required numerous properties to be demolished, along with the 665-foot (203 m) "Thirteen-arch viaduct" near Stapleton Road that was built in 1874. Work was delayed owing to the Three-Day Week industrial action in 1974, and further because of a national builders' strike. During construction, the Local Government Act 1972 was passed, and responsibility passed to the newly created Avon County Council in April 1974. This section, and hence the full extent of the motorway, was opened to traffic in May 1975. The cost was reported to be £10.4 million (now £75 million).
caption: The southern section of the M32 was the last to be built and passes close to numerous housing estates.
exif: {"Image Tag 0x000B": "digiKam-0.9.4", "Image ImageWidth": "3264", "Image ImageLength": "2448", "Image DocumentName": "IMG_1229.JPG", "Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon PowerShot A580", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "digiKam-0.9.4", "Image DateTime": "2009:05:31 11:46:37", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "286", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "180", "Thumbnail YResolution": "180", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "3430", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "3873", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/320", "EXIF FNumber": "71/10", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "80", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2009:05:31 11:46:37", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2009:05:31 11:46:37", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "5", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "133/16", "EXIF ApertureValue": "181/32", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "11/4", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "29/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3264", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2448", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "3264", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "2448", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "3282", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "43520/3", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "2448000/169", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}