M6 roadworks (18 miles) between Crewe and Knutsford

[Laurie61]

Friday 3 July 2015

PLANS have been announced to carry out multi-million pound works along more than 18 miles of the M6 between Crewe and Knutsford to upgrade the stretch to a four-lane smart motorway.

Draft regulations published on Monday, June 29, show that the work is set to be carried out later this year between October and December, and variable mandatory speed limits will be introduced during construction.

The construction work will cost between £192m and £274m.

The hard shoulder will be converted into a permanent extra running lane and smart motorway technology installed to give drivers more reliable journeys. Variable mandatory speed limits will be used to manage traffic speeds and help reduce congestion, whilst enabling safe operation of the motorway.

A spokesman for Highways England said: “This vital upgrade to this often-congested section of the M6 will see an extra lane added in each direction plus the use of smart motorway technology to give drivers smoother, more reliable journeys.

“We’ll be working hard to minimise any disruption during the construction phase including keeping drivers informed.”

The new draft regulations for introducing the variable mandatory speed limits have now been published for comment and can be found at highways.gov.uk/roads/road-projects/m6-junctions-16-19-smart-motorway/.

The consultation period will close on Sunday, August 9.

http://www.middlewichguardian.co.uk/news/13368718.Major_works_on_M6_announced/

If you want to have a say about this then you can respond here -

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/m6-junction-16-to-19-introducing-variable-speed-limits

 

[That-Crazy-Rat-Lady]

Great! That's basically the run between Warrington and Stafford!

 

[Laurie61]

Great! That's basically the run between Warrington and Stafford!

Yes and based on what happened with M6 south, from j13 down, it could go on for years. The speed cameras are also being set up so they are on all the time, not just during hard shoulder running, so it should be a nice little earner for local police. I think it's what's called 'sweating your assets'

 

[Lucy]

At some times of day I expect that to make that part of the motorway run better...

 

[Laurie61]

At some times of day I expect that to make that part of the motorway run better...

It should help with the stop/start queueing at busy times,I think there has been a decision made that controlling traffic with changeable speed limits and having an extra lane offsets the dangers of losing a continuous hard shoulder.
Personally I think it's a mistake, to lose a continuous refuge lane and an access lane for emergency services to reach an accident is a big gamble.
To then legislate and have cameras operating even when a 70 mph limit is in use makes no sense as cameras were for dangerous roads and accident black spots not the safest roads in the country.

 

[Lucy]

I travel to Walsall every day, and although the Junction 9 roadworks are completely messing it up at the moment, the 4th lane has changed my commute entirely. Previously I always got off at 11 to make sure I got to work on time, whereas once the 4th lane came into being I was able to go to 10 every day, unless there was an accident further down. Knocks around 15 minutes off a 16 mile trip.

 

[Jonah]

That will make it "Managed" motorway (the pre-smart motorway name) from J4 up to J19 with the exception of 14-16. I guess that will be done at some point as well.

That will be a long drive when the powers that be decide 40mph is the best speed for us to travel at.

 

[Noah]

That will make it "Managed" motorway (the pre-smart motorway name) from J4 up to J19 with the exception of 14-16. I guess that will be done at some point as well.

It might not. As part of the consultation about the upgrading of 11-13 they held a local display in Penkridge. One of the transport chappies there said that they had been ordered by the government to introduce a certain distance of managed/smart motorways. So they had looked round the system for the lengths of motorways that would be easiest to upgrade and the easy lengths are the ones that are being upgraded to meet the target.

 

[proactive]

That will be a long drive when the powers that be decide 40mph is the best speed for us to travel at.

You mean when the snotty nosed traffic womble, whose mother should never have allowed him to leave his bedroom, gets bored in the middle of the night and 'has a laugh' at our expense.

 

[Laurie61]

That will make it "Managed" motorway (the pre-smart motorway name) from J4 up to J19 with the exception of 14-16. I guess that will be done at some point as well.

That will be a long drive when the powers that be decide 40mph is the best speed for us to travel at.

When I read your post first time I saw Mangled instead of Managed From what I'v read the system only provides benefits at speeds down to 50 mph, below that and you might as well not bother. The ability to maintain traffic volumes along a given stretch diminishes to nothing, much below 50 mph, and the original road would move just as many vehicles per hour whilst still having the benefit of a proper hard shoulder.

 

[Kickstart]

That will make it "Managed" motorway (the pre-smart motorway name)

I think MisManaged motorway sums it up more appropriately. I might have more faith in them if seeing them badly used wasn't a regular occurrence.

Spend a bit extra and do the job properly adding a real 4th lane. Saves throwing all the current money at a short term bodge.

All the best

K

 

[Laurie61]

For our neck of the woods I would have thought it better to nationalise the toll road and not bother putting in a managed M way scheme. The operator may have complained but its not as though anybody else is queueing up, daft enough, to try this again ? Removing the bottle neck towards Walsall would ease traffic back up to j14 south bound and should help with north bound traffic from Birmingham, just like it was originally designed to do.

 

[Noah]

The only real way of reducing the problems from 10 down to 4 would have been to build the motorway that should have been built instead of the toll. From M5 J4a up to around M54 J3 and on to somewhere around M6 J14 or 15. THe M42 takes most of the south & east through traffic from the M5 and this would take the north & west through traffic. Save cluttering up the M6 round the West Midlands & Birmingham with traffic that doesn't want to be there.

 

[Jonah]

If the cost for the M6 Toll was £1 or £2 then people would use it far more.

£5.50 each way is a lot of money but I have used it a few times recently when driving to London or Oxford because I didn't want to face the journey from J10A down to J4.

 

[Laurie61]

I guess another way would have been to allow hgv's on the M6 toll road but have the gov pay their toll instead of installing managed M way ? If it cost £250 million to put in managed M way that's £250 million you could put towards the £11 hgv toll charge, which I reckon is 22 million hgv's toll paid for ? would probably take a lot of trucks off the old M6 and keep the operator happy.

 

[Gramaisc]

I guess another way would have been to allow hgv's on the M6 toll road but have the gov pay their toll instead of installing managed M way ? If it cost £250 million to put in managed M way that's £250 million you could put towards the £11 hgv toll charge, which I reckon is 22 million hgv's toll paid for ? would probably take a lot of trucks off the old M6 and keep the operator happy.

The Port Tunnel in Dublin is free for HGVs*, though cars pay a toll.

*above 3.5 tonnes and buses with more than 25 seats.

http://www.dublintunnel.ie/tolls_and_permitted_vehicles/

 

[Laurie61]

The Port Tunnel in Dublin is free for HGVs*, though cars pay a toll.

*above 3.5 tonnes and buses with more than 25 seats.

http://www.dublintunnel.ie/tolls_and_permitted_vehicles/

Yes ,that looks like a reasonable solution Haulage company's Ect did say they would not use a toll road and by and large this has been the case. It means that trucks not only stick on the old M 6 but also use surrounding roads like the A 5. As HGV's don't have the speed advantage of cars going the shortest route makes as much sense as staying on a more suitable/safer road, especially if you have to pay for it.
As speed limits drop and 24/7 cameras are introduced on M ways this logic will look more and more appealing to car drivers as well.

 

[Toble]

The problem with this 4 lane running smart motorway guff is that its fine until someone breaks down.

Normally with 3 lanes and a hard shoulder this isn't too much of a hassle, but with 4 lanes it means that you suddenly lose a 1/4 of the capacity for a short distance causing an instant bottleneck.Sounds brilliant so far. An utter blinder of a plan.

Now imagine this scenario: Poor little old Mrs Thingy in her aged Micra breaks down and gets as far left as she can. The fat controller in the watch-box is busy scratching his knackers and doesn't spot this hazard immediately. An over-hours HGV driver, distracted by an overdose of Redbull and barnyard pornography also fails to spot the hapless lady in time. Thus her small car is briefly turned into a a metal and flesh death-ball, punted down the carriageway at speeds it has previously never reached. Itchy balls + Redbull + beastiality = dead pensioner.

Can't possibly happen, right?

Not seen the video of the truck belting down the motorway with a Clio stuck to its front bumper?

<and pause>

Two weeks ago I crawled the the M6 south roadworks for two bloody hours. A review of the in-car camera revealed a total of two workmen. They were servicing one of the speed cameras. But thats another rant.

 

[Laurie61]

The problem with this 4 lane running smart motorway guff is that its fine until someone breaks down.

Normally with 3 lanes and a hard shoulder this isn't too much of a hassle, but with 4 lanes it means that you suddenly lose a 1/4 of the capacity for a short distance causing an instant bottleneck.Sounds brilliant so far. An utter blinder of a plan.

Now imagine this scenario: Poor little old Mrs Thingy in her aged Micra breaks down and gets as far left as she can. The fat controller in the watch-box is busy scratching his knackers and doesn't spot this hazard immediately. An over-hours HGV driver, distracted by an overdose of Redbull and barnyard pornography also fails to spot the hapless lady in time. Thus her small car is briefly turned into a a metal and flesh death-ball, punted down the carriageway at speeds it has previously never reached. Itchy balls + Redbull + beastiality = dead pensioner.

Can't possibly happen, right?

Not seen the video of the truck belting down the motorway with a Clio stuck to its front bumper?

<and pause>

Two weeks ago I crawled the the M6 south roadworks for two bloody hours. A review of the in-car camera revealed a total of two workmen. They were servicing one of the speed cameras. But thats another rant.

There are currently road works on M6 north of stoke, several miles of avg speed camera controlled road. Along there yesterday I spotted three blokes and a digger by a bridge

 

[Noah]

Bring back the cones hotline