Sir James Drake CBE (27 July 1907 – 1 February 1989) was a British chartered civil engineer who is regarded as the pioneer of the national motorway network in the United Kingdom.
[citation needed] He was appointed a CBE in 1962 for his services as County Surveyor and Bridgemaster of Lancashire County Council and in 1973 he was knighted in recognition of his role as head of the North West Road Construction Unit and the Lancashire Sub-Unit, organisations that further extended his initial work.
Drake was born in Burnley, Lancashire, and was educated at Accrington Grammar School and the Victoria University of Manchester where he graduated in 1927 with a BSc in Civil Engineering, with first-class honours.
He passed the professional exams of the Institution of Civil Engineers in April 1931, and was accepted as an associate in 1933 and as a full member in 1943.
These included a sports stadium and cycle track; an eighteen-hole golf course; municipal offices; housing estates; libraries; schools; sea defences; an 18-mile sewerage system; a 7-mile ring road; and the construction of Britain's first multi-storey car park with integrated bus station.
Drake and Lancashire County Council had long recognised that a new type of highway was necessary for the mass movement of people and goods on a swift and safe basis.
Bridges over the by-pass were built with sufficient clearance and headroom to accept dual three lanes in each direction without modification.
It was the first length of motorway opened to the public in the United Kingdom, with no speed limit and the largest road signs in Europe.
At 12.00 Councillor Alan Whittaker, the Chairman of Lancashire County Council, and Lord Adonis, Secretary of State at the Department of Transport, each made a short speech before unveiling the plaque, along with Sir James Drake's daughters, Diana and Jane, and Harry Yeadon.
[10] Harry Yeadon had worked on both the design and supervision of the by-pass scheme and in 1974 succeeded to the post of Lancashire's County Surveyor and Bridgemaster.
1973 – Drake is knighted in recognition of his role as head of the North West Road Construction Unit and the Lancashire Sub-Unit.