M62 Eccles interchange receives £3.1m boost

The M62 motorway at Eccles is to benefit from a £3.1m Highways Agency scheme aimed at increasing lane capacity and boosting safety and reducing queues.

The project will improve the M62 eastbound approach to Eccles interchange at Greater Manchester where Junction 12 of the M62 meets junction 12 of the M60.

Preparatory work began on Monday 10 January with the project due for completion in April. The scheme will provide an extra running lane for the eastbound M62 connections with the M60 entry slips.

The Highways Agency said around 60,000 vehicles use the eastbound carriageway of this section of the M62 every day, either to get onto the M60 or to travel onwards onto the M602 and into Manchester city centre.

The work will convert a section of the eastbound M62 hard shoulder into an extra running lane about two miles west of Junction 12.

The Highways Agency added that the new lane will help extend the two dedicated lanes onto the slip road for the clockwise M60 and also allow traffic wanting to join the anti-clockwise M60 to be filtered and separated much earlier, providing a dedicated lane ahead of the anti-clockwise entry slip road for the first time.

The agency said drivers on the eastbound M62 heading straight on into Manchester via the M602 will also benefit from a reduction in the number of vehicles braking and lane changing late to get onto the exit lanes to join the M60.

Traffic management along the M62 to aid the works will include:

• occasional overnight closures of the exit slip road at Junction 12
• one full overnight closure of the main carriageway in both directions to enable a gantry to be installed
• daytime hard shoulder closures on both carriageways and narrowed running lanes on the eastbound
• various overnight lane closures

The majority of the work will be done overnight between 9pm and 5am during the week and 9pm and 10.30am at weekends. Some work, requiring hard shoulder closures, will be done during the day.

The Highways Agency said when the eastbound exit slip road is shut drivers wanting to join the M60 will be sent down to junction 2 of the M602 to turn around and use the entry to the M60 from the westbound M602.

Drivers will be diverted via the M6, M56, A5103 and M60 when the whole carriageway is closed overnight.