Skip to main content

Manchester orbital route to become ‘smart motorway’

Four companies, Balfour Beatty, together with Costain, Carillion and a BAM Nuttall Morgan Sindall joint venture, have been awarded the contract to upgrade a 17 mile stretch of the M60 and M62 to a ‘smart motorway’. The US$313 million upgrade, for the UK Highways Agency, aims to increase capacity, reduce congestion and shorten journey times for motorists. The M60 between junctions 8 and 12 will be upgraded to a controlled motorway with traffic flows managed by technology interventions responsive to the
June 19, 2014 Read time: 2 mins
Four companies, 3902 Balfour Beatty, together with 2002 Costain, 7813 Carillion, 7815 BAM Nuttall and 7814 Morgan Sindall joint venture, have been awarded the contract to upgrade a 17 mile stretch of the M60 and M62 to a ‘Smart motorway’.

The US$313 million upgrade, for the 1841 UK Highways Agency, aims to increase capacity, reduce congestion and shorten journey times for motorists.

The M60 between junctions 8 and 12 will be upgraded to a controlled motorway with traffic flows managed by technology interventions responsive to the volume of traffic on the network.  The M62 between junctions 18 and 20 will become a four-lane, all-lane running motorway by adapting the hard shoulder for continuous use and using electronic signs to manage traffic flows.

Balfour Beatty executive chairman, Steve Marshall said:  “We have been working with the Highways Agency for twenty years and look forward to building on that successful relationship.  This scheme will benefit the 180,000 road users that pass through this section of the motorway network every day. We are committed to lead this project in a collaborative way with our partners, employing local people and businesses in our supply chain.”

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • VMS can counter small screens’ big problems
    June 9, 2015
    Lacroix Trafic’s Steve Collins believes the improving trends in road safety could go into reverse unless authorities make full use of the latest LED technology to meet drivers’ information needs. Road authorities and vehicles manufacturers could and should be far more active in countering some of the transportation industry’s major problems, according to Steve Collins export sales director at Lacroix Trafic.
  • Kapsch Basques in new deal
    April 22, 2022
    €12.5m tolling project will be implemented in Bizkaia region of northern Spain
  • New technology revolution in urban traffic control?
    January 26, 2012
    Urban traffic control is a well-defined and practised art. Nevertheless, there are technologies here and on the horizon with the potential to revolutionise how we do things. By Gavin Jackman and Andrew Kirkham, TRL, and Jason Barnes. Distributed monitoring and control of urban traffic networks and flows is nothing new. PC-based Urban Traffic Control (UTC) is now well established and operating in many locations around the world. However, it is worth considering the effects of the huge growth in the use of sm
  • Transit takes on demanding role
    April 2, 2021
    Community transport - or paratransit - has historically formed the basis of demand-responsive operations. But with new routing technologies, David Crawford sees wider potential