M25 Turns 40: Officers Recall Bolting Horses and Hay Fires

The M25 marks 40 years since its opening. Margaret Thatcher, then Prime Minister, cut the ribbon on 29 October 1986 and called the road a "magnificent achievement".

The motorway is 117 miles long. It runs through Kent, Surrey, Greater London, Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex. It drew huge numbers of motorists almost at once, and chronic congestion followed. Widening lanes, upgrading junctions and introducing "smart motorways" have not ended it. The road is sometimes called "The Road to Hell" or "Europe's largest car park".

Life on the carriageway

Chris Nutton, a National Highways traffic officer, described the range of days on the job. "We have days when it runs very smoothly and we have days when all hell can break loose," he said.

He recalled a driver who threw a lit cigarette from a car window and unknowingly set fire to the load of hay bales on the lorry behind. Other cases include drivers falling asleep in traffic jams.

His colleague Esther Martin said that besides breakdowns, officers have dealt with bolting horses. Over the festive period, presents have fallen out of roof boxes and spread across the carriageway. "Sometimes we have been able to reunite them with owners, but sometimes they've ended up under lorry wheels," she said. Wheelbarrows, bicycles, canoes and even a longbow have also been found on the tarmac.

The people who built it

Tony Ferris, a retired civil engineer, was part of the original team. He started work on the M25 in 1980. "It was a momentous piece of work over many years," he said. Asked whether the road deserves its criticism, he replied: "I don't think so." He called it "almost a victim of its own success - everybody wants to use it".

Simon Wilkinson, a commercial manager, said: "It's understandable it gets a bad rap sometimes." He added that the reason is how many people want to use it.

A consortium called Connect Plus has managed the motorway since 2009, under a 30-year contract worth £6.2bn.

Source: BBC News