Overnight work to speed up motorway widening

The Highways Agency is advising drivers that the eastbound M62 near Manchester will close overnight next week as work continues to complete an improvement to the busy commuter and trans-Pennine link.

The M62 Eccles interchange with the M60 is to receive an extra lane to help boost safety and reduce queues.

The agency said a review of the construction programme identified an opportunity to undertake more work overnight, which will help to speed up the project.

The eastbound carriageway, taking traffic onto the M602 into Manchester as well as the M60 clockwise and anti-clockwise carriageways, will be closed for five nights from Monday 28 March between 10pm and 5am each night. On each of the nights the eastbound carriageway will be closed between Junction 11 near Birchwood and Junction 12.

The scheme involves converting a section of the eastbound M62 hard shoulder into an extra running lane about two miles west of Junction 12.

The new lane will help extend the two dedicated lanes onto the slip road for the clockwise M60. It will 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.

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 changing lanes late to get onto the exit lanes to join the M60.

Neal Symmons, the Highways Agency's project sponsor, said: "We want to finish this project as quickly as possible to deliver the benefits to drivers and with that in mind we have agreed these overnight closures. Drivers should be able to make use of the new lane from the middle of April although some minor finishing works will be required in the area until May.

"Obviously, we try to time closures to reduce any inconvenience to drivers but this is a particularly busy route throughout the day as well as during normal peak periods so some overnight inconvenience to drivers wanting to access the M60 and M62 across the Pennines is inevitable and we would like to thank drivers in advance for their patience."

A clearly-signed diversion will be in place using the M6 and M56 – taking vehicles onto the M60 at Junction 5 at Northenden or into Manchester city centre via the A5103.