northern section was also dropped to 100 km/h. History Background 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 plans 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. Ground was broken for the new North-South Motorway on 28 May 1962 by Transport Minister Ben Schoeman, Administrator of the Transvaal, F.H. Odendaal and Johannesburg Mayor, Keith Flemming, just north of the Braamfontein Yards, site of the first bridge on the elevated motorway. The first section would be opened in the CBD in 1967 and rest of the motorway between 1972 and 1974. A two three-lane motorway was planned with large medians for breakdowns, elevated in the Central business district (CBD) as it crossed the Braamfontein railway yards and then became a double-decker motorway south through to an interchange near Westgate where it met the East-West Motorway (M2). The speed limit was set at between in the city, increased to and was set to reach the further one proceeded from the CBD. The motorway is named after the white South African opposition leader and United Party head, Sir De Villiers Graaff. Construction 1956 An early long-term motorway plan was envisaged for a future Johannesburg. The first was a north/south motorway of 18.4 km stretching from Westgate just south of the Johannesburg CBD to connect up with the existing main Pretoria Road, 5.6 km outside the Johannesburg municipal boundary in the northern suburbs. The Westgate section