It continues past Bromsgrove (and from Birmingham and Bromsgrove is part of the Birmingham Motorway Box), Droitwich Spa, Worcester, Tewkesbury, Cheltenham, Gloucester, Bristol, Portishead, Clevedon, Weston-super-Mare, Bridgwater, Taunton, Tiverton, Cullompton terminating at junction 31 for Exeter.

The Willow Man sculpture is visible from both carriageways, and acts as a landmark just to the south of junction 23, which as of 2021[update] had degraded and lost its head and arms.

The Ministry of Transport insisted that a dual two-lane motorway would be built at a cost of around £8 million.

[2][3][5] Gloucestershire County Council acted as engineer for this section, which was widened to a dual three-lane motorway in 1969.

Much of the northern section beyond junction 3, from about Oldbury to the junction with the M6 motorway, was constructed as an elevated dual three-lane motorway over Birmingham Canal (Old Main Line), Birmingham Canal (New Main Line), and Titford Pool using concrete pillars.

[3] The M5 was also extended southwards, in sections, from 1967 to 1977, through Gloucestershire and Somerset, to Exeter in Devon as a dual three-lane motorway,[3] together with the Strensham services.

The section from Huntworth (J24) to Blackbrook, on the east of Taunton, (J25) was built by A. Monk Ltd, of Padgate, with a contract for £5,721,086 in May 1973 for seven miles.

The short section between junctions 27 and 29 was built between 1967 and 1969, by Devon County Council, as the A38 Cullompton Bypass, with the intention that it should become part of the M5.

The route of the M42 was decided as early as 1972 but, owing to planning delays, the short section of the M42 north of Bromsgrove did not open until December 1989.

During this stage of construction the M5 became Britain's longest contraflow system,[11][12] spanning 9 miles (14 km) between junctions 19 and 20.

The Highways Agency did not anticipate the traffic flows through the junction and the resultant queues soon extended back onto the motorway.

[17] The Services opened in May 2014[18] In September 2020, Highways England announced that the section between junctions 1 and 2 in the West Midlands will be one of four in England to have its speed limit reduced to 60 mph (97 km/h) in a bid to reduce high levels of atmospheric nitrogen dioxide in the particular area.

[20] Works will commence in 2023 (subject to permission being granted) and be completed in 2024, according to the Gloucestershire County Council.

[21][22] However this would involve a number of reconstruction works including realignment where the current route of the A38 follows tight bends.

[23] In October 2009, workmen clearing vegetation from the slip road at junction 14 discovered human bones in a black bin bag dumped in the bushes.

Almondsbury Interchange Download coordinates as: M5#1 is a song from the 1994 album Middle Class Revolt by post-punk band The Fall which uses the M5 to describe reverting to a romanticised agricultural past that never really existed.