Timeline
| Year | |
|---|---|
| 1896 | Locomotives on Highways Act passed. No more need for a person to walk in front of vehicles. |
| 1902 | First Motor Roads planned in Belgium and USA |
| 1906 | London - Brighton Motorway proposed |
| 1910 | Creation of Roads Board, predecessor to the Ministry of Transport |
| 1919 | Ministry of Transport formed |
| 1922 | Urban motorway in London proposed |
| 1923 | Northern and Western Motorway from Uxbridge to Salford proposed |
| 1925 | First Italian Autostrade opens |
| 1926 | London - Brighton motorway proposed once more |
| 1927 | Bimingham - Wolverhampton New Road (A4123) opens |
| 1934 | Liverpool - East Lancashire Road (A580) opens |
| 1936 | Institute of Highways Engineers proposes motorway network |
| 1938 | County Surveyors' Society proposes motorway network |
| 1938 | Lancashire County Council propose North-South Motorway through the county |
| 1942 | Internal Ministry of War Transport tentative proposals for motorway network |
| 1943 | County of London Plan proposes urban motorways for the capital |
| 1949 | Road Plan for Lancashire published |
| 1949 | Special Roads Act passed |
| 1956 | Work starts on the Preston Bypass |
| 1958 | Preston Bypass, Britain's first motorway opens |
| 1959 | First section of M4 (Chiswick Flyover) opens |
| 1959 | First section of M1 opens, along with M10 and M45 |
| 1962 | Minister of Transport announces "1,000 miles of motorway by early 1970s" |
| 1962 | SELNEC Highways Plan proposes network of urban motorways around Manchester area |
| 1962 | First motorway in Northern Ireland (M1) opens |
| 1965 | First motorway in Scotland (M8 Harthill Bypass) opens |
| 1966 | First motorway in Wales (A48(M) Port Talbot Bypass) opens |
| 1967 | Road Construction Units created |
| 1969 | Roads for the Future published |
| 1970 | Second thousand mile target "by early 1980s" set. |
| 1973 | London Ringways cancelled |
| 1973 | Start of road budget cutbacks due to oil crisis |
| 1986 | M25 London Orbital completed |
| 1987 | A6144(M) Carrington Spur opens |
| 1989 | Roads for Prosperity published |
| 1993 | Protests at Twyford Down delay completion of M3 |
| 1997 | New Deal for Transport cancels large numbers of schemes |
| 2000 | M60 Manchester Outer Ring Road is completed. No motorways under construction for first time since 1956 |
| 2003 | M6 Toll opens, bypassing M6 through the Birmingham and Wolverhampton areas |
| 2008 | M6 Preston Bypass reaches 50. Final section of M6, closing the Cumberland Gap, opens on same day |