HOMEOWNERS below one of the country’s most infamous motorway junctions have insisted they love it – despite the noise and dirt.
People whose properties are mere metres away from Birmingham‘s so-called “Spaghetti Junction” are putting a brave face on things.
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They have revealed how they suffer daily noise and pollution from traffic thundering along major highways such as the M5 and M6.
Yet it also brings benefits, it seems – including its own supposed “beach”, despite Birmingham being Britain‘s most inland city.
Gravelly Hill Interchange is the UK’s busiest motorway junction – and one of the country’s most familiar concrete structures.
The winding labyrinth of roads by England’s second city Birmingham has more than 200,000 vehicles travelling on it daily.
It even appears in the Guinness Book of World Records, as “the most complex interchange on the British road system”.
Yet neighbourhoods are nestled under its five levels of motorway lanes – and locals below the flyover insist they’re fine with it.
There are complaints about early-morning wake-up calls from beeping horns, emergency service sirens and accelerating boy racers.
Dirt and dust also spatter nearby gardens, cars and homes, yet residents say they enjoy living beside such a landmark.
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Dad-of-one Brian Thomas, 45, said he found the noise of the traffic calming and joked about a nearby “beach” – a pile of industrial sand next to a neighbouring canal.
He said: “I don’t mind it, I find the traffic quite soothing. You get used to it and it’s got good transport links, as you can imagine.
“We’ve also got our own beach, of sorts – what more could you want?
“It’s a landmark recognised across the country – I’m sort of proud to live near here.”
Local business owner Aqeel Naeem, 35, who runs a shop repairing electrical goods, said the roads weren’t a problem for him.
He said: “It doesn’t bother me – I actually enjoy it, otherwise it gets quiet.
“The road is mostly busy from people who want to take the motorway to get off of it – it can get quite dusty.”
But he looks on the bright side, adding: “A good thing is that you can tell someone the direction to the business – it acts as a landmark.”
Mum-of-two Meeka, a 33-year-old NHS worker, admits living so close did “bother” her at first – though her home’s triple glazing helps.
She said: “I only hear the lorries honking their horn or when an ambulance goes past.
“It’s not all the time, it doesn’t bother me so much now.
“I don’t really think about pollution at all. There’s a wooded bit so there’s a section that absorbs the noise.”
Yet others do complain about disruption caused by the junction, which connects the M6 to the A38M leading into the heart of Birmingham as well as connecting to other highways such as the M5.
Mark McKinley, who has lived on Copeley Hill beside Spaghetti Junction for the past six years, branded it a “tangled mess”.
The dad-of-two added: “Noise can be an issue in the evening – it’s more of an issue when you get the racing in the evening. There’s been a few accidents.
“We get a lot of dirt that comes off the traffic – I have a brand new car and I have to clean it every day.
“The amount of dust and rubbish coming off of it is ridiculous.”
And he told how congestion is worst when nearby Premier League football club Aston Villa have home games, saying: “People park here, they dump the cars everywhere.”
Another local said she was moving house due to living beside what was once dubbed one of the “world’s most stressful road junctions”.
She said: “The noise is what’s bothering me – it’s too loud and is constantly bothering me so I want to see if I can get away.”
Spaghetti Junction was opened in 1972 and took four years to complete at a cost of £10million.
It has 559 concrete columns – some 80ft high – and is reinforced by 13,000 tonnes of steel while covering an area of 30 acres.
Birmingham has been described as “the Venice of the north” for its waterways, with even more canals than the renowned Italian resort.
Spaghetti Junction might provoke moans from motorists yet escaped making a recent list of the world’s most stressful interchanges.
Elsewhere in Birmingham residents in the UK’s “most polluted” estate have revealed the air is so toxic the plants die in hours and yet they don’t want to leave.
Further north, homeowners in Greater Manchester say their lives have been ruined by nightmare noise after what’s been dubbed Britain’s busiest road was built next door.
Complaints have also been made by a dad living under the M4 motorway in Port Talbot, Wales – although his wife says she feels fine about it.
But another family living below the same stretch told how they actually find the noise soothing.
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This post first appeared on thesun.co.uk
