wednesbury is on thomas telford's london to holyhead road, built in the early 19th century. the section between wednesbury and moxley was widened in 1997 to form a dual carriageway, completing the black country spine road that had been in development since 1995 when the route between wednesbury and west bromwich had opened, along with a one-mile route to the north of moxley linking with the black country route. the original plan was for a completely new route between wednesbury and moxley, but this was abandoned as part of cost-cutting measures, as were the planned grade-separated junctions, which were abandoned in favour of conventional roundabouts.