England’s first motorway celebrates 60th birthday with ITS upgrade

Sixty years today, 2,300 drivers drove along an eight-mile section of road in England – the first motorway in the country. Opened in 1958, the Preston bypass – now part of the M6 - only had two lanes in each direction, with no safety barrier in the central reservation. There was also no technology – not even simple electronic signs. Highways England is pledging to celebrate the birthday by completing four upgrades on the M6 by spring 2022. The £900m project will add extra lanes and better technolog
December 5, 2018 Read time: 2 mins
Sixty years today, 2,300 drivers drove along an eight-mile section of road in England – the first motorway in the country.


Opened in 1958, the Preston bypass – now part of the M6 - only had two lanes in each direction, with no safety barrier in the central reservation.

There was also no technology – not even simple electronic signs.

8101 Highways England is pledging to celebrate the birthday by completing four upgrades on the M6 by spring 2022. The £900m project will add extra lanes and better technology to 60 miles of the motorway between Coventry and Wigan, the organisation says.

The first upgrade, a 20-mile stretch between Crewe and Knutsford in Cheshire, is due to be finished by spring 2019, and will have 258 electronic signs, 104 traffic sensors and 70 CCTV cameras.

The upgrades will involve converting the hard shoulder to a permanent extra lane to increase capacity by a third.

“Our motorways have changed massively over the past six decades and smart motorways could be just a glimpse of the technology transformation still to come,” says Andrew Jinks, smart motorway director at Highways England. “In 60 years’ time, driverless vehicles could be as commonplace as a car radio.”

The amount of traffic using England’s motorways has increased by almost two-thirds in the past 25 years alone, including more than double the number of vans, Highways England says.

Air Quality & Weather Systems

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • University of Michigan wins Transportation Technology Tournament
    July 25, 2019
    A team from the University of Michigan has won the Transportation Technology Tournament for designing a solution to reduce congestion on two interstate highways in the Detroit area. The team presented their solution, Corridor Management in the I-75/I-696 Influence Area, to a panel of judges during a tournament which took place during the Institute of Transportation Engineers annual meeting in Austin, Texas. It focused on mitigating heavy, peak hour traffic volume on I-75 between Detroit and Troy, as
    Read More
  • FTA calls for greater reliability on road network following improvements at Dartford
    October 14, 2015
    Drivers using the Dartford Crossing at peak times are saving around an hour and a half every week thanks to Dart Charge, according to Highways England. New figures released by Highways England show that journeys over the Dartford Crossing, which cost £62million (US$95 million) to convert to free-flow tolling, are up to 56 per cent faster than before payment barriers were removed. Drivers at peak times save up to 14 minutes southbound and seven minutes northbound.
    Read More
  • UK government invests £7m to boost cycle safety
    February 27, 2018
    The UK government will invest £7m ($5m) in cycling projects to improve road safety and create more bike-friendly areas that encourage more people to cycle as part of everyday journeys. It is part of the Department of Transport’s (DoT’s) cycle safety review, which aims to ensure that the country’s roads are as safe as possible for everyone using them. Eight cities, which have already received help from the government to promote cycling, will be able to bid for an additional £6.5m ($4.6m) of funding to
    Read More
  • Intelligent Transport System for Australia's Monash Freeway
    May 14, 2013
    Sluggish peak-hour traffic on Melbourne's busiest road, the Monash Freeway, will flow about 20 km/h faster when new technology is introduced, thanks to a US$78.2 million cash injection from the Australian Government to help improve traffic flow, with the money to go towards installing and upgrading intelligent transport systems on a 34.5-kilometre stretch of the road in Melbourne's east. The commitment is intended to be matched by the Victorian government and will go towards technology such as variable spee
    Read More

Highlighted Content