£250M SMART MANCHESTER MOTORWAY PLAN UNVEILED

Highways Agency chiefs have announced that work has now started on the major smart motorway project to cut congestion around Stockport and journey times on parts of the M60 and M62 in Greater Manchester and as reeported here in November 2013.

The smart motorways scheme is the first of its kind in the North West and has been priced between £190m and £267m.

It will be introduced on a 17-mile stretch of the network between Junction 8 of the M60 near Sale and Junction 20 of the M62 near Rochdale.

Engineers will begin their work necessitating some sections of the hard shoulder to be closed during which time a free vehicle recovery service will be operating for anyone who happens to break down and from next Monday a temporary steel barrier to protect road workers will be installed in the hard shoulder between junction 18 of the M62 at the M60/M66 interchange and junction 20 at Rochdale.

At the same time a 50mph speed limit will be introduced on the M62 section, to ensure the safety of the workforce and motorists.

The temporary speed limit, enforced with temporary average speed cameras, will then gradually be extended across the length of the smart motorway route over the following weeks.

All of the lanes on the motorway will remain open during the day throughout the roadworks but some overnight closures may be required with the work expected to be completed by 2016/17.

The system will use the latest technology to monitor traffic levels, provide traffic information to road users, and ease congestion by using variable speed limits on overhead signs.

The hard shoulder will also be permanently converted into an extra lane on a five-mile stretch of the M62 between Junctions 18 and 20 to provide extra capacity on the part of the motorway which links the North West to Yorkshire.

Emergency refuge areas will be created on this section of motorway with overhead signs used to alert motorists of lane closures and incidents ahead, clearing lanes to allow emergency vehicles to get through.