M26 motorway the M26 at that time formed part of Ringway 4 and would have been designated as part of the M25. Construction of the first part of the M25 began in 1972 but before it opened, plans for the "London Orbital" motorway were modified to combine the southern and western part of Ringway 4 with the northern and eastern part of Ringway 3. To connect the two separate routes, which together were numbered as the M25, an additional section of road needed to be planned and the M25 route was diverted northwards from junction 5 to meet Ringway 3 at Swanley
M25 motorway outside Heathrow Airport consistently records the highest number of daily traffic counts on the British strategic road network with a sample in 2017 measuring 211,059 counts (lower than the record peak measured in 2014 of 262,842 counts). This compares to 197,219 counts measured on the M1 motorway between junction 7 and 8 outside Hemel Hempstead in 2014, and 195,325 counts measured on the M60 motorway between junctions 12 and 13 in Western Manchester, also in 2014. The M25, plus the short non-motorway A282 which joins the two ends of the M25 across the River Thames using the Dartford Crossing, is