Love it or hate it, Spaghetti Junction (officially named Gravelly Hill Interchange) is a major landmark for the Birmingham area. It’s an abyss of twisting and turning roads which wind into and around each other to make a beautiful road structure which is used daily by tens of thousands of people traveling in and out of Birmingham.
In order to commemorate the anniversary, celebrities joined forces with Highways England creating a video that celebrates the feat of engineering that is Spaghetti Junction, one of England’s best-known landmarks.
Award-winning chef and proud ‘Brummie’ Glynn Purnell said in the video: “Whenever I think of Spaghetti Junction, I think of home. Whenever I’d been on my holidays to Weymouth as a child or to see my nan, I always knew I was home whenever I saw the Spaghetti Junction.
As well as this, Pete Waterman, music-mogul and proud-Midlander said: “When I think of Spaghetti Junction, I think of record industry. In the 70s, I wouldn’t have been able to get in and out of Birmingham as quickly as I did without Spaghetti Junction.”
The launch of the video is significant because it coincides with the UK currently facing a shortfall of 20,000 engineering graduates a year, with half of the companies within the sector saying this has a significant impact on productivity and growth.
The video has been made for the ‘Year of Engineering’ campaign which aims to bring young people face to face with engineering experiences and role models to showcase the creativity and innovation of engineering careers. It hopes to widen the pool of young people from all backgrounds who are willing to consider the profession, diversifying a workforce that is 91% male and 94% white.
Highways England is backing the ‘Year of Engineering’ campaign and appealing to young people to consider engineering as a rewarding career because the country needs more people with the skills to build structures like Spaghetti Junction.
Highways England Customer Service Director, Melanie Clarke said: “This special video is a fitting tribute to the famous structure and clearly captures the pride that the people of Birmingham and those that use it every day continue to hold for the road. When it was designed 50 years ago nobody could have predicted that the anniversary of work starting on the road would coincide with the Year of Engineering and there is no better tribute to the role of engineering than Spaghetti Junction.”
HM Government Envoy for the Year of Engineering, Stephen Metcalfe MP, said: “The Year of Engineering is a chance to show young people from all backgrounds the amazing things they could achieve as engineers, so it’s fantastic to be celebrating 50 years of one of the UK’s most iconic engineering feats. Spaghetti Junction is a great example of how engineering transforms the way we live, work and travel. Advances in technology, energy, healthcare and infrastructure mean engineers will continue to play a vital role in all our lives, so it’s more important than ever that we inspire young people and their parents to take a closer look at the opportunities that this creative, innovative profession could offer them.”
Any young people inspired to explore a career in engineering are encouraged to visit the Year of Engineering website which has further information.
(Image: Adrian Richardson)
