Maintenance to start on M56/M53 motorways

The Highways Agency has announced work to repair bridges, resurface the carriageway and other maintenance around Junction 15 of the M56 and Junction 11 of the M53 motorways at Stoak will start on Friday.

The £1.56m is due to begin on 2 September with intermittent works, including some slip road and carriageway closures, overnight and at weekends, until Friday 7 October.

The Highways Agency said it has combined schemes in the area to minimise future inconvenience for motorway users.

A weekend closure of the westbound M56 from Junction 15 until the end of the motorway where it meets the A5117 near Junction 16 is planned to start on Saturday 10 September. The closure will be in place from 9pm on the Saturday night until 6am on the Monday 12 September.

There will also be a couple of nights of weekday overnight working, with further full closures in place between 10pm and 5am.

Two weekend closures of the eastbound carriageway between the start of the motorway from the A5117 and Junction 15 will take place between 9pm on Friday nights and 7am on Sunday mornings starting on Friday 16 September and Friday 30 September.

There will also be three weekday overnight closures over the roadworks period between 10pm and 5am.

The M56 westbound link road onto the M53 northbound at Stoak will also be closed between 9pm on Saturday 24 September and 6am on Monday 26 September with a further, overnight, closure between 10pm on Tuesday 4 October and 5am on Wednesday 5 October.

Some 50mph speed restrictions will also be in place along the carriageways around the interchange for safety reasons while closures are in place.

Mark Mosley, Highways Agency project sponsor, said: "This is routine but vital maintenance of this important motorway interchange and we hope drivers appreciate that we do need to close lanes and carriageways from time to time to ensure we continue to deliver safe, smooth and reliable journeys for motorway users.

"To minimise inconvenience to motorway users we have tried to do as much work as possible around this area within the same roadworks slots, tried to be sensitive to people heading out of the region for the weekend and timed the work to take place when traffic volumes are at their lightest."