A 'Super Tunnel' the length of Birmingham city centre is being considered in an attempt to relieve city centre congestion.

The underground motorway is just one of many suggestions put forward by Birmigham City Council to combat the crippling congestion on the A38 and free up crucial devlopment space.

David Harris, the transport policy manager at Birmigham City Council had this to say, "It is about people, not vehicles, and better ways of moving people through the city. We want a walkable city. The A38, particularly where it comes out of St Chad¹s tunnel, seems to create a massive barrier."

The super-tunnel option ­ creating a new underground motorway similar to one in the US city of Boston ­ is one of many options being looked into. Other options include joining up the existing St Chad¹s and Queensway tunnels or filling them in and ushering traffic around rather than through the city centre.

The A38 currently sees 85,000 traffic movements daily, around half of which involve journeys by people purely wishing to get from one side of the city to the other.

The council said nothing will change in "the short term" and any options being discussed are for long-term planning.