M1 road (Johannesburg)
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| Route information | |
| Maintained by Johannesburg Roads Agency and Department of Roads and Transport (Gauteng) | |
| Length: | 18.5 mi (29.6 km) |
| Existed: | 1967 – present |
| Major junctions | |
| North end: |
 N1 Western Bypass and  N3 Eastern Bypass near Buccleuch |
N1 Buccleuch Interchange R55 Woodmead Drive M60 Marlboro Drive M40 Grayston Drive M30 Corlett Drive M31 Atholl-Oaklands Road M20 Glenhove Road Extension R25 11th Avenue M16 Riviera RoadM31 1st AvenueM31 Houghton Drive/Harrow Road M9 Oxford Road M27 Jan Smuts Avenue M71 Empire Road M10 Smit StreetCarr Street  M2 Village Road Selby and M2 MotorwayM2 Crown InterchangeM27 Booysens Road M17 Xavier RoadUncle Charlies Interchange  M68 Columbine Avenue |
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| South end: |
 R82 in Meredale, Johannesburg |
| Highway system | |
| Numbered routes of South Africa | |
The M1 De Villiers Graaff motorway is a major freeway in Johannesburg, South Africa. The highway connects the southern areas (including Booysens, Eldorado Park and Soweto) with the city centre and extends further north through Sandton into the Ben Schoeman Highway towards Pretoria. Construction began in 1962 and resulted in the demolition of many properties and houses including numerous historical Parktown Mansions.
Both the M1 and M2 motorways have their beginnings in a 1948 traffic planning scheme developed by the Johannesburg City Council and examined by American traffic engineering consultant Lloyd B. Reid in 1954. Two 10-year plan examined among other things the idea of new urban motorways and improving existing highways. The plan called for two motorways, one running East-West along the southern CBD and the other running to North-South on the western side of the CBD. The plan was linked to national and provincial governments plan by the National Transport Commission for the Western and Eastern Bypasses, the future N1 and N3 in northern Johannesburg.
The plan for the original motorway began in Bramley at Corlett Drive and headed south through Killarney and Parktown before cutting through the ridge between the University of the Witwatersrand and the Milner Park Agricultural Showgrounds and then over the Braamfontein railway yards through Newtown to the East-West interchange. From there it would cross Crown Mines land and head southwards past Robertsham to another proposed interchange and future Western Bypass (N12) before ending at the beginning of the Kimberley Road.
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Wikipedia