First smart motorway is open – but drivers face more years of disruption
GREATER Manchester’s first smart motorway is up and running – but drivers in Stockport should brace themselves for more years of works, overnight closures and 50mph speed limits.
Five more smart motorway projects are planned across the M60, M62, M56 and M6.
With a start date delayed from early 2019 to 2020/2021, the M60 is due for a smart motorway upgrade between junction 24 through Stockport to junction 4 at Cheadle. This is now due for completion in 2022/2023.
The smart motorway on the M60 between junctions 10 and 18 was finally fully-launched last Thursday, marking the end of a year’s delay for the £208m 17-mile project.
It means the whole of the motorway between junction 8 of the M60 at Sale and junction 20 of the M62 at Rochdale is fully operational – and there is no longer a full-time 50mph speed limit.
The huge project was delayed by nearly a year due to its ‘complexity’.
But another five smart motorways – which use variable speed limits, converted hard shoulders, CCTV cameras and electronic signs to control congestion – are now heading our way.
It will mean five more years of work, 50mph limits, overnight closures and disruption.
The first project lined up is on the M62 between junctions 10 at the Croft interchange where the M62 meets the M6 and junction 12 at the Eccles interchange.
Preparation work began in the spring, with speed limits for works to begin introduced later this month.
It is due for completion in spring 2020.
The current M6 works between junction 16 near Crewe and junction 19 near Knutsford are finishing, but in next spring more will start.
That work will see the installation of a smart motorway between junctions 21a, at the M62 near Warrington, and junction 26 of the M6, at the M58 near Skelmersdale.
The work is due to be finished by spring 2021.
Work on the M56 – from junctions 6 to 8, near Manchester Airport, will start in spring next year and finish in spring 2020.
Back on the M62, work on the link between junctions 20 and 25 is set for a start date of March 2020. This is for a smart motorway with the hard shoulder converted into an extra lane. It will come at a cost of £283.2m to £392.3m. A completion date is yet to be confirmed.
Mike Bull, Highways England’s smart motorways programme manager for the north, said they had been proven to be effective at tackling congestion, with commuters on the M62 in West Yorkshire saving an average of 30 minutes a week.