Major road projects to improve journeys in Merseyside and Cheshire

Two major new road schemes worth more than US$388 million (£300 million) are set to cut congestion and improve journey times for hundreds of thousands of drivers in Merseyside and Cheshire, UK. Highways England has set out its preferred options for upgrading the key route to the Port of Liverpool and creating a new junction on the M56 near Runcorn following public consultations earlier this year.
September 1, 2017 Read time: 2 mins

 Two major new road schemes worth more than US$388 million (£300 million) are set to cut congestion and improve journey times for hundreds of thousands of drivers in Merseyside and Cheshire, UK.

8101 Highways England has set out its preferred options for upgrading the key route to the Port of Liverpool and creating a new junction on the M56 near Runcorn following public consultations earlier this year.

A new three-mile dual carriageway between the motorway network and the port will take freight away from residential areas on the A5036, which has been identified as being the tenth most congested road in England. The bypass will serve the existing port as well as the deep-water container terminal, which is expected to triple the port’s volume of goods by 2030.

The new junction 11a on the M56 will provide a new link to the Mersey Gateway bridge between Runcorn and Widnes and improve local access to the motorway, while the new junction on the M56 will take traffic away from residential areas as well as providing a new route to the Mersey Gateway bridge – an important new link between Cheshire and Merseyside.

A new roundabout, controlled by traffic lights, will also be built at the junction connecting Broom’s Cross Road, Brickwall Lane and the new bypass. Broom’s Cross Road will also be upgraded to a dual carriageway from the new roundabout to Switch Island, where the A5036 connects with the M57 and M58.

Detailed designs for both major road projects will now be developed, with construction work due to start by spring 2020.

Funding for the schemes is being provided as part of the government’s £15 billion Road Investment Strategy (RIS), and will help boost the Northern Powerhouse by improving transport connectivity and reliability to help the economy of the North.

Urban Traffic Control

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Highways England is performing well but has areas for improvement, finds regulator
    July 21, 2017
    The Annual Assessment of Highways England’s Performance by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) has found that the company is performing well against most of its performance targets. ORR says however that continued improvement is needed to plan when work takes place throughout the year. ORR, which is the official Monitor of Highways England, found that the company is meeting its targets to keep traffic flowing while delivering its programme of major improvements. It is continuing to focus on improving safety a
    Read More
  • New partnership aims to make roads safer for motorcyclists
    November 23, 2016
    Highways England, the company responsible for running over 4000 miles of England’s motorways and major trunk roads, is to become the third partner in a collaboration to improve motorcycle rider safety. The government-owned company will join the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and the Motorcycle Industry Association (MCIA) as an equal partner in facilitating practical changes to roads, as detailed in a jointly written whitepaper: Realising the Motorcycling Opportunity: A Motorcycle Safety and Trans
    Read More
  • IBTTA Summit: satellite tolling is the future
    August 15, 2019
    IBTTA members met in Florida to consider the technological changes that will impact their businesses – including satellite tolling. Colin Sowman reports from Orlando Over decades, the technology employed in toll collection has been honed to near perfection – automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) and radio frequency identification (RFID) tags are easily within a couple of per cent of infallibility even at highway speeds. However, technical innovations beyond the confines of the toll road cannot b
    Read More
  • New vision for London’s 21st century roads and streets
    July 11, 2013
    London’s Mayor’s Roads Task Force (RTF) has set out a bold new vision for the future of the city’s roads and streets to ensure the capital can cope with major population growth, support jobs and thousands of new homes, while remaining one of the most attractive, vibrant, accessible and competitive world cities. A range of proposals includes: roofing over arterial roads to create new surface space; changing the way goods and services are delivered, such as shifting HGVs and freight out of peak hours; embraci
    Read More

Highlighted Content