On this day, 53 years ago, on May 24, 1972 (April 12, 1972, the "Spaghetti Crossing" was opened. Spaghetti Crossing On May 24, 1972, British Environment Secretary Peter Volcker announced that the Landsz Expressway junction had been opened. This connects about 300 miles of highway from London to the Scottish border. This final junction stretches for seven miles between Big Bar and Broomwich Castle near Birmingham, including the overpass near Griffrey Hill. This complex overpass created the largest in the world at that time. Because its shape resembled a coil of mismatched spaghetti, people often called it the "spaghetti intersection."