Comment on historical ICE paper Available to Purchase

Sir James Drake (1907–1989) was the creator of the British motorway system. As Borough Surveyor of Blackpool in 1936, he apparently designed it on a sheet of paper. His 1949 Roads Plan for Lancashire was a blueprint for a regional motorway system which he essentially completed over the next quarter-century. In this paper, read to the ICE in late 1956, he calls for completion of a national motorways plan over 25 years, at an estimated cost of £175 million a year. His map is remarkably close to the system that was actually completed by the 1980s.