Wales has less than one hundred of the two thousand miles of motorway constructed in Britain in the 20th century. However, the Principality can boast the first length of urban motorway, the first motorway tunnels, the longest rock tunnels, the first immersed tube tunnel, and major estuarial bridge crossings.<BR><BR>Wales is a land of mountains and valleys. The topography provides major engineering challenges requiring high cost solutions. Viaducts, bridges, tunnels, and major earthworks play an integral and prominent part. The need to bypass communities located in narrow valleys and environmentally sensitive areas confronted road designers with conditions unique in the UK. Following an introductory chapter, this book describes the background, formulation and implementation of the major roads strategy and comments on management of the built asset.<BR><BR>East-west routes across South Wales (M4 and M48) and North Wales (A55) are the lifelines essential for the economic well-being of the Principality. For that reason both are classified as major strategic routes for the purpose of the Motorway Achievement and chapters are devoted to describing their design and construction. The major crossings of the Severn estuary are covered in a separate chapter.Many other roads have been built or upgraded by local and central government, and a chapter is devoted to describing other significant trunk road schemes. The commentary in the concluding chapter reviews the past, the present and the future.<BR><BR>The overcoming of the engineering challenges and the successful completion of 80 miles of motorway in South Wales and 88 miles of near-motorway-standard dual-carriageway in North Wales is celebrated in this book, which will appeal to all those with an interest in our civil engineering heritage.