TheM6 motorway is the longest motorway in the United Kingdom. It is located entirely within England, running for just over 230 miles (370 km) from theMidlands to the border with Scotland. It begins at Junction 19 of theM1 and the western end of theA14 at theCatthorpe Interchange, nearRugby before heading north-west. It passesCoventry,Birmingham,Wolverhampton,Stoke-on-Trent,Preston,Lancaster andCarlisle before terminating at Junction 45 nearGretna. Here, just short of the Scottish border it becomes theA74(M) which continues toGlasgow as the M74. Its busiest sections are between junctions 4 and 10a in the West Midlands, and junctions 16 to 19 in Cheshire; these sections have now been converted tosmart motorways.
It incorporated thePreston By-pass, the first length of motorway opened in the UK and forms part of a motorway "Backbone of Britain", running north–south between London andGlasgow via the industrial North of England. It is also part of the east–west route between the Midlands and the east-coast ports. The section from the M1 to theM6 Toll split nearBirmingham forms part of the unsignedE-roadE 24 and the section from the M6 Toll and theM42 forms part ofE 05.
The first section of the motorway and the first motorway in the country was thePreston By-pass. It was built byTarmac Construction and opened by thePrime MinisterHarold Macmillan on 5 December 1958.[7] In January 1959 the Preston by-pass was closed because of rapid surface deterioration over a stretch of 100 yards (91 m) "due to water freezing and then thawing". Motorists were diverted to the old road while the UK road research laboratory at Harmondsworth pondered the importance of surface water drainage.[8]
The second phase of construction was completed in 1960, forming the Lancaster by-pass. Some 100 miles (160 km) south, the Stafford by-pass was completed in 1962.[9][10] By 1965, the remaining sections of motorway Stafford–Preston and Preston–Lancaster had been completed. 1966 saw junction 11 to 13 completed. 1968 saw the completion of theWalsall to Stafford link as well as the Penrith by-pass some 150 miles (240 km) north inCumberland. In 1970, the Lancaster–Penrith link was completed, along with a short section of motorway by-passing the south of Walsall. The most northerly section of the motorway also opened in 1970, running to the designated terminus north of Carlisle. By 1971 the full route was completed between the junction with the M1 motorway at Rugby and theA38 road several miles north-east of Birmingham city centre,[9] includingBromford Viaduct betweenCastle Bromwich (J5) andGravelly Hill (J6), which at 3.5 miles (5.6 km) is the longest viaduct in Great Britain.[11][12]
Junction 6 in Birmingham, which opened in May 1972, is widely known asSpaghetti Junction because of its complexity and round and curvy-like design. On the elevated ground betweenShap andTebay, the north and south-bound carriages split apart.[13] At this point a local road (toScout Green) runs between the two carriageways without a link to the motorway.[14]
The section of the M6 that runs over Shap Fell in Cumbria atShap Summit is 1,036 ft (316 m) above sea level, one of the highest points on any motorway in the UK (Junction 22 of theM62 on Moss Moor is higher). Themotorway engineers here chose to follow the route of theLancaster and Carlisle Railway engineered byJoseph Locke (now part of the West Coast Main Line) where the motorway runs in a split-level cutting above the railway in the descent from Shap Fell through the Lune Gorge into southern Cumbria.[15]
The northbound entry slip road at Lancaster (Junction 34) was unusually short, presenting problems for traffic joining the motorway. The M6 crosses theRiver Lune at this point and unless the bridge had been made wider, there was no space to build a longer slip road. This junction was upgraded from an earlier emergency-vehicles-only access point, which explains the substandard design.[16] The construction of theHeysham to M6 Link Road (The Bay Gateway) has completely re-modelled this junction with a wide additional bridge over the River Lune and other works repositioning slip roads with new acceleration lanes to modern standards.
The route was originally intended to replace the oldA6, which it does along the northern section starting with the Preston Bypass. However, a much closer approximation to the overall actual route of the M6 (heading north from its southern terminus) is provided by following theA45,A34,A50,A49, then theA6.[17] South of Preston, the A6 route is instead supplemented by theM61 as far asManchester, with theM60 acting as a bypass around the city. South of Manchester, there is no true motorway replacement for the old road. TheM1 acts as a bypass for long-distance traffic in the south, from theKegworth junction nearNottingham, toLuton andSt. Albans near London; but, it is not an alternative for local traffic as the routes diverge by more than 15 miles (24 km) while passing throughNorthamptonshire. Across thePennines, the old road remains the main local through-route, and long-distance fast traffic betweenDerby and Manchester must instead take either theA50 and M6, or M1 and M62.[18][unreliable source?]
Once all sections of the motorway were constructed, and it was finally all linked together, the result was an uninterrupted motorway length of 230 miles (370 km).[19][20][21]
In July 1972, the Minister for Transport Industries,John Peyton, announced that 86 miles (138 km) of UK motorway particularly prone to fog would benefit from lighting in a project which "should be" completed by 1973.[22] Sections to be illuminated included the M6 between junctions 10 and 11, and between junctions 20 and 27.[22]
In March 2006, after 15 years of debate,[23] the government authorised the construction of a 6-mile (9.7 km) extension of the M6 from its then northern terminus near Carlisle to the Anglo-Scottish border atGretna (the so-called "Cumberland Gap"), where it links into the existingA74(M).[24] The road opened on 5 December 2008, the 50th anniversary of the M6 Preston By-pass.[25] The project, which was a mixture of new road and upgrade of the existing A74, crosses the West Coast Main Line and had an estimated costs of £174 million. It completed an uninterrupted motorway from just south ofDunblane (via theM9, the recently openedM80 section nearCumbernauld and theM73) in the north toExeter (via theM5) and toLondon (via both theM42/M40 and theM1) in the south.[26]
TheM6 Toll, Britain's firsttoll motorway, which bypasses theWest Midlands conurbation to the east and north of Birmingham and Walsall and was built to alleviatetraffic congestion through the West Midlands, opened in December 2003. Before the opening of the toll motorway, this section of the M6 carried 180,000 vehicles per day at its busiest point nearWolverhampton (between the junctions with the M54 and M5 motorways), compared with a design capacity of only 72,000 vehicles. Usage, at about 50,000 vehicles, was lower than expected and traffic levels on the M6 were only slightly reduced as a result. The high toll prices, which were set by the operating company and over which theUK Government has no influence until 2054, were blamed for the low usage.[27][failed verification][citation needed] Much traffic continues to use the M6 or the continued on the M1 and took theA50 orA52.[28] As of July 2012[update] the road between Junctions 3A and 11A now carries 120,000 motor vehicles every day.[29]
A proposed extension to the M6 Toll known as the 'M6 Expressway', which would have continued from the M6 Toll as far asKnutsford, at which point much of the existing M6 traffic leaves the M6 forManchester, was abandoned in 2006 due to excessive costs, anticipated construction problems[30] and disappointing levels of use of the M6 Toll.
In October 2007, following a successful trial on theM42 in the West Midlands, the government announced that two stretches of the M6 would be upgraded to allow thehard shoulder to be used as a normal running lane during busy conditions under a scheme calledactive traffic management.[31] The two stretches, between junctions 4 and 5 and between junctions 10a and 8, are two of the busiest sections on the entire motorway.[32] It was then proposed that the system could be extended onto other stretches of the M6 while the government undertook a feasibility study to determine other likely locations for this technology to be used.[33] The stretch between junctions 4 and 5 was completed during December 2009[34] while the stretch between junctions 10a and 8 was completed during March 2011.[35] This was then followed by a stretch between junctions 5 and 8 which started construction in April 2012 and was completed in October 2014.[36]
After plans of the government to improve reliability and capacity between Junctions 11 byCannock and Junction 19 near Knutsford it favoured a new motorway in 2004, 'The Expressway' following a roughly parallel course to the existing M6.[37][38] In July 2006, the government announced its decision to abandon the Expressway proposal, and favoured widening accompanied by demand-management measures,[30] and launched a study to consider options for providing additional capacity.[39] After the stretch between junction 10a and 13 was upgraded to a managed motorway in February 2016,[40] it was then proposed to introduce a managed motorway between junction 13 and 19,[41] later divided into two separate stretches, between junctions 16 and 19 and junctions 13 and 15.[42] The stretch between junctions 16 and 19 started construction in December 2015[43] and was completed in March 2019[44] while construction on the stretch between junctions 13 and 15 commenced in March 2018[45] and was completed in August 2022.[46]
Work started in 2020 to reconstruct the bridges above the motorway at junction 10, due to frequent congestion at peak times, due to be completed in 2024 at a cost of £78,000,000.[49]
Work started in March 2022 to upgrade the existing Dynamic Hard Shoulder smart motorway to add newer safety features to the motorway, such as a concrete central reservation, new emergency areas and drainage improvements. Currently, this work does not have an end date proposed.[50]
Work started in early 2021 to upgrade the M6 from junction J21A to J26 to the all lane running standard of smart motorway, with an estimated cost of between £100 million - £250 million. The smart motorway was originally due to be fully open in 2023, but is now delayed until 2025.[51]
Data fromdriver location signs are used to provide distance and carriageway identifier information. Where a junction spans several hundred metres (yards) and the start and end distances are known, both distances are shown.[52][53]
Eachmotorway in England requires that astatutory instrument be published, detailing the route of the road, before it can be built. The dates given on these statutory instruments relate to when the document was published, and not when the road was built. Provided below is an incomplete list of statutory instruments relating to the route of the M6.
Statutory Instrument 1987 No. 252: County Council of West Midlands (M6 Motorway Junction 10) (Connecting Road) Scheme 1985 Confirmation Instrument 1987[54]
Statutory Instrument 1990 No. 2659: M6 Motorway: Widening between Junctions 20 and 21A (Thelwall Viaduct) and Connecting Roads Scheme 1990[56]
Statutory Instrument 1991 No. 1873: M6 Motorway (Widening and Improvements Between Junctions 30 and 32) and Connecting Roads Scheme 1991[57]
Statutory Instrument 1993 No. 1370: Lancashire County Council (Proposed Connecting Roads to M6 Motorway at Haighton) Special Roads Scheme 1992 Confirmation Instrument 1993[58]
^Frommer's Short (22 December 2011). "4".The Borders and Galloway Regions, Scotland: Frommer's ShortCuts. 1. Vol. I (I ed.). London: John Wiley & Sons. pp. 56–.ISBN978-1-118-27111-7.
^Highways Agency, ed. (2004). "1".M6 Route Management Strategy: Warrington to the Scottish Borders : Final Strategy Summary Brochure, January 2004. 1. Vol. 1 (I ed.). Scotland: Highways Agency. p. 54.
^Lesley Anne Rose; Michael Macaroon; Vivienne Crow (6 January 2012). "36".Frommer's Scotland. I. Vol. I (I ed.). London: John Wiley & Sons. pp. 424–.ISBN978-1-119-99276-9.
^Baldwin, Peter; Porter (M.S.), John; Baldwin, Robert (2004)."72". In Thomas Telford (ed.).The Motorway Achievement. Vol. I (One ed.). London: Thomas Telford. pp. 836–.ISBN978-0-7277-3196-8. Retrieved9 July 2012.
^Highways Agency, ed. (2004). "1".M6 Route Management Strategy: Warrington to the Scottish Borders : Final Strategy Summary Brochure, January 2004. 1. Vol. 1 (I ed.). Scotland: Highways Agency. p. 73.
^Frommer's Short (22 December 2011)."3".The Borders and Galloway Regions, Scotland: Frommer's ShortCuts. Vol. I (I ed.). Scotland: John Wiley & Sons. pp. 56–.ISBN978-1-118-27111-7. Retrieved9 July 2012.
^The Spectator. Vol. 245. F. C. Westley. 1980. Retrieved9 July 2012.
^The Municipal Journal, vol. 73, Ministry of Housing and Local Government, 1965
^House of Commons: Transport Committee (2 August 2005).Road Pricing: The Next Steps; Seventh Report of Session 2004–05. The Stationery Office. pp. 46–.ISBN978-0-215-02566-1.
^British Information Services; Great Britain. Central Office of Information (1 January 1970). "I".Survey of British and Commonwealth affairs. One. Vol. I (I ed.). England, United Kingdom: Published for British Information Services by Her Majesty's Stationery Office. Retrieved9 July 2012.
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