Highways England completes major works on Manchester’s smart motorway

Highways England (HE), a government-owned company, has announced that its contractors have completed the work of converting hard shoulder on a five-mile stretch of the M62 near Rochdale to a standard motorway lane, and have initiated work in the central reservation.

The company has further explained that they would be using more than 7,000 tonnes of concrete for creating a new safety barrier in the central reservation that would reduce the risk of vehicles crossing onto the opposite carriageway in collisions.

Upon completion, the smart motorway is expected to enhance this sections capacity on the motorway by a third, making journeys quicker and more reliable.

Highways England senior project manager Stephen Hill said: “This scheme will ultimately improve journeys for the tens of thousands of drivers who use it every day, and the completion of the hard shoulder work is a major milestone for the project.

“We can now start installing the new concrete safety barrier in the central reservation and work towards lifting the roadworks between junctions 18 and 20 on the M62 by the end of September.”

HE further added that the work is being continued throughout the 17 mile scheme that runs from junction 8 of the M60 at Sale to junction 20 of the M62 at Rochdale.

As part of the scheme, 56 overhead gantries will be upgraded for fixing new electronic signs.

The Manchester smart motorway is slated to open for the public later this year in September, with all of the roadworks planned to be lifted by the end of the year.

The company also plans to introduce variable speed limits on the new overhead electronic signs on the completed smart motorway to tackle congestion and keep traffic moving, and will be used to inform drivers about lane closures and incidents ahead.

The motorway will also feature CCTV cameras covering the entire route will allow Highways England’s traffic officers and the emergency services to respond quickly to incidents.