M32 motorway 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
M32 motorway opened by the Secretary of State for Transport, John Peyton in July 1970. The total cost was £3 million (now £ 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 "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