Vital wear and tear repairs starting along the M6 in Lancashire next week will be delivered without disrupting ‘staycation’ journeys.
Large sections of both the northbound and southbound carriageways along the 13-mile section of the motorway between junction 32 and junction 33 are being resurfaced in the 14-week, £3.25 million project starting on Monday (28 June).
But Highways England has ensured all the routine, if important, repairs will take place overnight – and with only a handful of carriageway closures.
Highways England project manager Frank Jamieson said:
“We’re very conscious we are heading into a ‘staycation summer’ so we’ll only be working overnight, keeping lanes open and carriageway closures to a minimum.
“By combining different types of work along different sections of the motorway into one single project we’ll also save around £200,000 on the cost of the scheme. That’s money we can put into other repairs or improvements.”
The resurfacing will be done with new lower-noise materials. Other work such as repairing or replacing bridge expansion joints, installing new road studs and ironing out more persistent carriageway ‘bumps’ will also be delivered.
Working along different sections of the route and combining different types of work will mean savings from sharing traffic management activities and equipment, reduced overall shift hours, less mobilisation and demobilisation costs and shared compound costs.
The scheme will be delivered in two phases – along the northbound carriageway up to Sunday 18 July and the southbound carriageway between Monday 19 July and Wednesday 22 September. No work will be taking place over the late summer bank holiday at the end of August.
All the repairs will be delivered between 8pm and 7am at night when traffic is at its lightest. Only four overnight carriageway closures will be required during the whole of the project.
The overnight closures, along the southbound carriageway, are currently scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday 27 and 28 July and Friday and Saturday 10 and 11 September with the long-standing A6 diversion in place. Access to and out of the southbound Lancashire (Forton) services will also be closed for one night only on Monday 13 September. A 50mph speed limit will be in place along sections where work is taking place.
More information, including a project leaflet, is available from https://highwaysengland.co.uk/our-work/north-west/north-west-maintenance-schemes/
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