£19bn congestion-busting schemes for Greater Manchester unveiled
PLANS have been unveiled for several major new link roads costing up to nearly £19bn to ease congestion in Greater Manchester.
The proposals are contained in the DfT report, named the Manchester North-West Quadrant Study.
The new “Northern Corridor” proposal is in a report from the Department of Transport involves the M60 motorway, between junctions 8 at Stretford and 18 at Bury and the possibility of a new link road from the M6 junction at Orrell near Wigan to the M61 junction 5, at Westhoughton, near Bolton.
Traffic would then travel south on the M61 to junction 2 where the A666 joins the A580 (East Lancs Road), before joining a new direct route to the M62, connecting at Simister Island junction 18, of the M60.
Also included is the creation of a new orbital ring road outside of the existing M60 motorway, linking the M62 at junction 12, with drivers travelling along the M61 and on to the M62 at junction 18.
A final ‘in-corridor package’ could involve a programme of improvements to “significantly” enhance the capacity, performance and resilience of the M60 in an area including Bolton, Bury, Salford and Rochdale.
The study proposes that the Northern Corridor package could cost around £5.5bn, with the other In Corridor Package listed at more than £6bn and the Orbital or ‘ring road’ package predicted to cost as much as £7.3bn.
The DfT says all of the proposals are “speculative” and there are no firm details about what type of roads could be built, motorways, A-roads or dual carriageways.
A spokesman for the DfT said: “We don’t have any firm details at this point on dates and costs — the report is just a guide at this point. The costs are speculative and are very unlikely to be that high in reality.”
