Preston By-pass Preston By-pass The Preston Bypass was Britain’s first motorway. It was designed and engineered by Lancashire County Council surveyor James Drake as part of a larger initiative to create a north-south motorway network that would later form part of the M6 motorway. The bypass was opened on 5 December 1958 by the Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan. Nearly £3 million was spent in its construction. The original -mile () motorway ran around the east side of Preston between Bamber Bridge (now the M6, Junction 29) and Broughton (now the M55, Junction 1) and crosses over the River Ribble at Samlesbury at
M69 motorway M69 motorway The M69 is a dual three lane dual carriageway motorway in Leicestershire and Warwickshire, England. It runs between junction 21 of the M1 near Leicester and junction 2 of the M6 near Coventry. It opened in 1977. The motorway, also known at the time as the 'Coventry – Leicester Motorway' was completed in 1977 following a public inquiry in 1972. It took traffic from the A46, which was subsequently downgraded. Starting at the northeastern suburbs of Coventry at junction 2 of the M6, the motorway crosses the Coventry Canal and then continues northeast past Bulkington and west of