1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th (formerly 1st Chengdu bypass highway) and 5th Ring Roads (formerly 2nd Chengdu bypass highway), currently exist in
Chengdu and a new 3rd bypass highway (6th ring road) is under construction and scheduled for completion in 2017.
In
Hong Kong, a circular
motorway,
Route 9, as known as New Territories Circular Road, circles the
New Territories and connects all the towns to the north of New Kowloon.
Brno City Ring (Brněnský městský okruh, vnitřní městský okruh), the inner ring in Brno
the three old Prague rings (I, II, III) and many rings in other cities are not special express ring roads but routes signed on common streets and roads
Denmark
Copenhagen City Ring (
O2) and Outer Rings
O3, O4, Motorringveje
3 og
4)
Kehä 0 (Ring 0), a conceptual approach to routing traffic away from the very centre of the city, to develop greater pedestrian access areas in the centre, the so-called "carless centre". Though this is the least legitimate in the sense of what is commonly thought as a ring road, merely consisting of ways to route traffic, it differs from the other ring roads in that it would consist of a fully circular network of routes around a focal point, rather than I, II and III, which are properly only semicircular, being as they are, limited by the sea on one side.
Kehä I (Ring 1), encircling
Helsinki while also passing through
Espoo, for local traffic
Kehä II (Ring 2), traffic loadout highway through
Espoo, for local traffic (Kehä II is not an actual ring road but only a stub – the complete ring is not yet even planned)
Athens is encircled by the system of
Attiki Odos motorway with three main avenues, forming a Π around the Athens Basin. To the northern side, the main section (number 6) connecting
Elefsina shipyards-industrial zone with the
Athens International Airport in Spata and counts about 50 km. To the western side,
Aigaleo Avenue, encircling
Mount Aigaleo and to the eastern side, the
Hymettus Ring. As supplementary avenues there are also NATO Avenue, running across the
Elefsina Basin next to
Mount Aigaleo,
Katehaki Avenue, connecting NE (
Papagou) and SE (
Ilioupoli) suburbs of Athens aligned with
Mount Hymettus and finally
Varis-Koropiou Avenue, connecting the vicinity of Athens International Airport and the SE coast of
Athens, near the suburb of
Voula, in the back side of
Mount Hymettus. To the south side (coast),
Poseidonos Avenue (Or "Paraliaki (Παραλιακή): Greek for "Coastal (Road)") runs from
Piraeus (
Faliro Interchange) to
Voula, aligned with the coast, until it meets
Varis-Koropiou and then it continues to the countryside
Sounio Avenue, towards Sounio and
Lavrio.
The quality of the encircling system varies from motorway of high standards and fully computerised control and service (northern section of
Attiki Odos) to more simple two-lanes avenue, like
Aigaleo Avenue. Most of the system, maybe except the mountainous parts (Aigaleo, Katehaki and Hymettus Ring), is a high-speed traffic system of roads. Usually the most speedy traffic is noticed on the coastal
Poseidonos Avenue, thus making it need increased attention.
Galway: Galway City Outer Bypass (planned)[3] (part of the
N6 road route)
Waterford: Waterford Bypass [under construction] (part of the N25 route)
Dublin has three generations of partial ring roads. Due to its location on the sea, there is no complete ring road as yet. with the combined
South Circular Road and
North Circular Road forming the oldest, and inner pair dating from the 19th century.
The
M50 motorway forms the middle, most complete and most heavily trafficked (85k-90k cars/day) ring road with an eventual plan to form a complete ring via an undersea tunnel or bridge.
The
Outer Ring Road forms the newest partial ring, running along the west of the cities outer suburbs. Eventual plans are to link it to sections of the
R121 road which provides a similar service in the north west of the city, with land being reserved for this.
In addition, Dublin City Council has signed two "orbital routes" consisting of existing roads, but following these requires turning at many junctions.
Moscow Central Ring Road is a planned road which will consist of parts of Moscow Small Ring and Moscow Big Ring. Planned length is about 442 kilometres (275 mi), it will be opened in 2015.
Inside the Moscow city limits there are three ring roads: the central
Boulevard Ring, which is generally two lanes each way with narrow tree-lined parks between the carriage ways; the
Garden Ring, which has at least four lanes each way and no gardens; and the Third Ring Road, which was constructed in the late 1990s and early 2000s and combined existing roads and new highways. A fourth ring, between the Third Ring and the MKAD, is planned.
M-30, which at a mean distance of 5.17 kilometres (3.21 mi) to the
Puerta del Sol has been overtaken by the city in most of its 32.5 kilometres (20.2 mi) length.
M-40, which borders Madrid at a mean distance of 10.07 kilometres (6.26 mi), with connections to the southern
metropolitan towns and projects westwards to reach
Pozuelo de Alarcón for a total length of 63.5 kilometres (39.5 mi).
M-50, which was planned as a full ring but is not "closed" as of 2008, though projects by the
Autonomous Community of Madrid to connect both ends through a tunnel are being aired. It is 85 kilometres (53 mi) long and services mainly the metropolitan area at a mean distance of 13.5 kilometres (8.4 mi).
Also, the half-loop
M45 runs between the
M40 and the
M50 at the east, where the two beltways are more separated; and there are plans to build a fourth full loop, the
M60, which would be over 120 kilometres (75 mi) long and encompass the whole metropolitan area of Madrid. This proliferation of orbital motorways is partially due to the traditional high radiality of the Spanish highway network, which routed most cross-country traffic through Madrid.
Other Spanish beltways include:
B10 motorway, also known as
Ronda Litoral coastal lower (south part) ring road in Barcelona (Catalonia)
Ashford, Ashford Ringway was formerly a one-way circuit of the town centre consisting of 3 to 4 lanes and part of the A292. The Elwick Road and Forge Lane sections now form part of the town's shared space scheme with an aim of taming the traffic and promoting commercial growth. Somerset Road is now a dual carriageway and Wellseley Road and Station Road are now a single carriageway section of the A2042.
Basingstoke, Basingstoke Ringway is a complete loop around the town centre; it is a dual carriageway except for a small unfinished section on the south-western side.
M60 Orbital Motorway: Created by the amalgamation and renumbering of several existing motorways (
M62,
M63 and
M66) and some new build to create a complete loop around the city of
Manchester and seven neighbouring
Metropolitan Boroughs to form one of the UK's busiest stretches of road.
Anillo Periférico,
Mexico City. The beltway gained major media attention when the Mexico City mayor,
Andrés Manuel López Obrador, started a project to turn a southern section of the ring into a two-story highway. The second floor was finished in 2006.
Circuito Interior, Mexico City. The inner beltway inside Mexico City proper.
Libramiento Arco Norte a toll road partly under construction being built around Mexico City.
Periférico Manuel Gómez Morín,
Guadalajara, Jalisco. The ring has a gap: it starts at the Federal Highway 44, circles around the city as a 3+3 lane highway, becomes a 2+2 lane road in the
Tonalá municipality, and ends abruptly in the Federal Highway 90.
Macrolibramiento,
Guadalajara, Jalisco. An outer beltway that bypasses the city from the Zapotlanejo expressway to the Tepic expressway with the goal of relieving the current beltway from its heavy cargo traffic.
Anillo Interno 210,
Monterrey, Nuevo León. The beltway is almost a complete 3+3 lane highway. In clockwise it starts in the intersection with Avenida Constitución and continues until Avenida Gonzalitos – Fidel Velazquez, then Avenida Nogalar, Avenida Los Angeles, until the intersection Churubusco – Avenida Constitución. The beltway is a complete freeway except for the part from Avenida Los Angeles – Churubusco until Avenida Constitución (east part of the Beltway).
Periférico Ecológico,
Puebla, Puebla. An incomplete ringroad which passes through most of the municipalities that conform the Metropolitan Area of Puebla.
Ross Clark Circle, a surface street (as opposed to a
controlled-access highway) encircling
Dothan—the first such 'ring road' in the United States, opening in 1958. Also known as State Route 210
Interstate 495,
Boston (not fully circumferential due to city's seaside location)
I-495 forms part of a complete beltway around
Lawrence. I-495 runs along this beltway between exits 40 and 47. The rest of the beltway is formed by
Interstate 93 between exits 44 and 48 on that highway, and the entirety of
Route 213 (AKA the "Loop Connector", which lent its name to a
strip mall in Methuen).
These ring roads are all unfinished except for I-240/I-40 serving Asheville, I-840/I-85/I-73 serving Greensboro, I-440/I-40 serving Raleigh, I-485 and I-277/I-77 and Charlotte Route 4.
a 12.9 freeway stretch of the route in the city limits of
Asheboro forms a partial loop around the central area of the city. Also forms a similar partial loop in nearby
Pittsboro.
NC 67 (Silas Creek Parkway), forms a
partial-controlled access partial loop around the western side of
Winston-Salem, with most of the road carrying NC 67 between Peters Creek Parkway to Reynolda Road.
US 264, Alternate U.S. 264 (Greenville Boulevard),
NC 11 Bypass, forms a loop around
Greenville, part of which is a freeway.
In the city of
Akron, a beltway (albeit rectangular-shaped) is formed by three different Interstates –
Interstate 77 travels alone on the eastern part (between exits 122–125),
Interstate 76 travels alone on the western part (between exits 18–20), I-76 and I-77 share the northern part (signed as exits 20–23, using I-76 exit numbers), and
Interstate 277 forms the entire southern part (4 miles)
1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th (formerly 1st Chengdu bypass highway) and 5th Ring Roads (formerly 2nd Chengdu bypass highway), currently exist in
Chengdu and a new 3rd bypass highway (6th ring road) is under construction and scheduled for completion in 2017.
In
Hong Kong, a circular
motorway,
Route 9, as known as New Territories Circular Road, circles the
New Territories and connects all the towns to the north of New Kowloon.
Brno City Ring (Brněnský městský okruh, vnitřní městský okruh), the inner ring in Brno
the three old Prague rings (I, II, III) and many rings in other cities are not special express ring roads but routes signed on common streets and roads
Denmark
Copenhagen City Ring (
O2) and Outer Rings
O3, O4, Motorringveje
3 og
4)
Kehä 0 (Ring 0), a conceptual approach to routing traffic away from the very centre of the city, to develop greater pedestrian access areas in the centre, the so-called "carless centre". Though this is the least legitimate in the sense of what is commonly thought as a ring road, merely consisting of ways to route traffic, it differs from the other ring roads in that it would consist of a fully circular network of routes around a focal point, rather than I, II and III, which are properly only semicircular, being as they are, limited by the sea on one side.
Kehä I (Ring 1), encircling
Helsinki while also passing through
Espoo, for local traffic
Kehä II (Ring 2), traffic loadout highway through
Espoo, for local traffic (Kehä II is not an actual ring road but only a stub – the complete ring is not yet even planned)
Athens is encircled by the system of
Attiki Odos motorway with three main avenues, forming a Π around the Athens Basin. To the northern side, the main section (number 6) connecting
Elefsina shipyards-industrial zone with the
Athens International Airport in Spata and counts about 50 km. To the western side,
Aigaleo Avenue, encircling
Mount Aigaleo and to the eastern side, the
Hymettus Ring. As supplementary avenues there are also NATO Avenue, running across the
Elefsina Basin next to
Mount Aigaleo,
Katehaki Avenue, connecting NE (
Papagou) and SE (
Ilioupoli) suburbs of Athens aligned with
Mount Hymettus and finally
Varis-Koropiou Avenue, connecting the vicinity of Athens International Airport and the SE coast of
Athens, near the suburb of
Voula, in the back side of
Mount Hymettus. To the south side (coast),
Poseidonos Avenue (Or "Paraliaki (Παραλιακή): Greek for "Coastal (Road)") runs from
Piraeus (
Faliro Interchange) to
Voula, aligned with the coast, until it meets
Varis-Koropiou and then it continues to the countryside
Sounio Avenue, towards Sounio and
Lavrio.
The quality of the encircling system varies from motorway of high standards and fully computerised control and service (northern section of
Attiki Odos) to more simple two-lanes avenue, like
Aigaleo Avenue. Most of the system, maybe except the mountainous parts (Aigaleo, Katehaki and Hymettus Ring), is a high-speed traffic system of roads. Usually the most speedy traffic is noticed on the coastal
Poseidonos Avenue, thus making it need increased attention.
Galway: Galway City Outer Bypass (planned)[3] (part of the
N6 road route)
Waterford: Waterford Bypass [under construction] (part of the N25 route)
Dublin has three generations of partial ring roads. Due to its location on the sea, there is no complete ring road as yet. with the combined
South Circular Road and
North Circular Road forming the oldest, and inner pair dating from the 19th century.
The
M50 motorway forms the middle, most complete and most heavily trafficked (85k-90k cars/day) ring road with an eventual plan to form a complete ring via an undersea tunnel or bridge.
The
Outer Ring Road forms the newest partial ring, running along the west of the cities outer suburbs. Eventual plans are to link it to sections of the
R121 road which provides a similar service in the north west of the city, with land being reserved for this.
In addition, Dublin City Council has signed two "orbital routes" consisting of existing roads, but following these requires turning at many junctions.
Moscow Central Ring Road is a planned road which will consist of parts of Moscow Small Ring and Moscow Big Ring. Planned length is about 442 kilometres (275 mi), it will be opened in 2015.
Inside the Moscow city limits there are three ring roads: the central
Boulevard Ring, which is generally two lanes each way with narrow tree-lined parks between the carriage ways; the
Garden Ring, which has at least four lanes each way and no gardens; and the Third Ring Road, which was constructed in the late 1990s and early 2000s and combined existing roads and new highways. A fourth ring, between the Third Ring and the MKAD, is planned.
M-30, which at a mean distance of 5.17 kilometres (3.21 mi) to the
Puerta del Sol has been overtaken by the city in most of its 32.5 kilometres (20.2 mi) length.
M-40, which borders Madrid at a mean distance of 10.07 kilometres (6.26 mi), with connections to the southern
metropolitan towns and projects westwards to reach
Pozuelo de Alarcón for a total length of 63.5 kilometres (39.5 mi).
M-50, which was planned as a full ring but is not "closed" as of 2008, though projects by the
Autonomous Community of Madrid to connect both ends through a tunnel are being aired. It is 85 kilometres (53 mi) long and services mainly the metropolitan area at a mean distance of 13.5 kilometres (8.4 mi).
Also, the half-loop
M45 runs between the
M40 and the
M50 at the east, where the two beltways are more separated; and there are plans to build a fourth full loop, the
M60, which would be over 120 kilometres (75 mi) long and encompass the whole metropolitan area of Madrid. This proliferation of orbital motorways is partially due to the traditional high radiality of the Spanish highway network, which routed most cross-country traffic through Madrid.
Other Spanish beltways include:
B10 motorway, also known as
Ronda Litoral coastal lower (south part) ring road in Barcelona (Catalonia)
Ashford, Ashford Ringway was formerly a one-way circuit of the town centre consisting of 3 to 4 lanes and part of the A292. The Elwick Road and Forge Lane sections now form part of the town's shared space scheme with an aim of taming the traffic and promoting commercial growth. Somerset Road is now a dual carriageway and Wellseley Road and Station Road are now a single carriageway section of the A2042.
Basingstoke, Basingstoke Ringway is a complete loop around the town centre; it is a dual carriageway except for a small unfinished section on the south-western side.
M60 Orbital Motorway: Created by the amalgamation and renumbering of several existing motorways (
M62,
M63 and
M66) and some new build to create a complete loop around the city of
Manchester and seven neighbouring
Metropolitan Boroughs to form one of the UK's busiest stretches of road.
Anillo Periférico,
Mexico City. The beltway gained major media attention when the Mexico City mayor,
Andrés Manuel López Obrador, started a project to turn a southern section of the ring into a two-story highway. The second floor was finished in 2006.
Circuito Interior, Mexico City. The inner beltway inside Mexico City proper.
Libramiento Arco Norte a toll road partly under construction being built around Mexico City.
Periférico Manuel Gómez Morín,
Guadalajara, Jalisco. The ring has a gap: it starts at the Federal Highway 44, circles around the city as a 3+3 lane highway, becomes a 2+2 lane road in the
Tonalá municipality, and ends abruptly in the Federal Highway 90.
Macrolibramiento,
Guadalajara, Jalisco. An outer beltway that bypasses the city from the Zapotlanejo expressway to the Tepic expressway with the goal of relieving the current beltway from its heavy cargo traffic.
Anillo Interno 210,
Monterrey, Nuevo León. The beltway is almost a complete 3+3 lane highway. In clockwise it starts in the intersection with Avenida Constitución and continues until Avenida Gonzalitos – Fidel Velazquez, then Avenida Nogalar, Avenida Los Angeles, until the intersection Churubusco – Avenida Constitución. The beltway is a complete freeway except for the part from Avenida Los Angeles – Churubusco until Avenida Constitución (east part of the Beltway).
Periférico Ecológico,
Puebla, Puebla. An incomplete ringroad which passes through most of the municipalities that conform the Metropolitan Area of Puebla.
Ross Clark Circle, a surface street (as opposed to a
controlled-access highway) encircling
Dothan—the first such 'ring road' in the United States, opening in 1958. Also known as State Route 210
Interstate 495,
Boston (not fully circumferential due to city's seaside location)
I-495 forms part of a complete beltway around
Lawrence. I-495 runs along this beltway between exits 40 and 47. The rest of the beltway is formed by
Interstate 93 between exits 44 and 48 on that highway, and the entirety of
Route 213 (AKA the "Loop Connector", which lent its name to a
strip mall in Methuen).
These ring roads are all unfinished except for I-240/I-40 serving Asheville, I-840/I-85/I-73 serving Greensboro, I-440/I-40 serving Raleigh, I-485 and I-277/I-77 and Charlotte Route 4.
a 12.9 freeway stretch of the route in the city limits of
Asheboro forms a partial loop around the central area of the city. Also forms a similar partial loop in nearby
Pittsboro.
NC 67 (Silas Creek Parkway), forms a
partial-controlled access partial loop around the western side of
Winston-Salem, with most of the road carrying NC 67 between Peters Creek Parkway to Reynolda Road.
US 264, Alternate U.S. 264 (Greenville Boulevard),
NC 11 Bypass, forms a loop around
Greenville, part of which is a freeway.
In the city of
Akron, a beltway (albeit rectangular-shaped) is formed by three different Interstates –
Interstate 77 travels alone on the eastern part (between exits 122–125),
Interstate 76 travels alone on the western part (between exits 18–20), I-76 and I-77 share the northern part (signed as exits 20–23, using I-76 exit numbers), and
Interstate 277 forms the entire southern part (4 miles)