 The initial plan for a motorway following the M54's present route was therefore designed to alleviate the roads which handled the commercial traffic to the port of Holyhead, destined for Ireland.With the proposal in the early 1960s for a new town to provide an overspill housing area for the West Midlands conurbation, then named "Dawley New Town" (designated as Telford in 1967), the M54 was becoming more likely to be built; the government also wanted to increase transport provision to the rest of Shropshire.In 1967 the Ministry of Transport invited construction company "Freeman Fox, Wilbur Smith Associates (FFWSA)" to investigate and report on the impact of the New Town proposals on traffic demand between the proposed New Town site and Wolverhampton, and the best highway solution to meet this demand.