M60, Junction 13 Improvements
Overview
The works at junction 13 of the M60 (Manchester Orbital Motorway), on one of the motorways busiest junctions have been occasioned by the construction of the new Royal Horticultural Society new Bridgewater Garden at Worsley Hall, that promises to be one of the North West England’s biggest tourist attractions. Junction 13 will be the main motorised access but the footpaths and cycleway will be heavily used by visitors to the Garden.
Improvements to the none motorised user routes around the junction including widening of the footways throughout the junction to allow safer and easier access to the RHS site.
The works included the upgrade of crossings and the closure of the more dangerous crossings at slips providing vehicular access to/from the M60.
The widening of the carriageway around the eastern and western roundabouts allowed a more steady flow through the area, to reduce wait-times during peak times.
There were alignment alterations, resurfacing and new road markings throughout the extent of the scheme to improve the highway.
New bus stops were constructed.
Improvements to street lighting and pedestrian guard-rails were installed.
Key Challenges
- The site was crossed by many services including a largely uncharted 80 year old Cadent gas-main, which had numerous pre-existing leaks within the work areas. Liaison with Cadent and great care was required whilst working within these areas. Extensive trial holing and hand digging was needed to prove areas were clear of services so our works could progress safely
- The COVID-19 pandemic struck early on in the scheme and we adopted government guidelines immediately. Activities were restructured to take into account the required social distancing measures and an increased sanitisation and cleaning regime was implemented. Consequently, we were able to continue the works without delay or incident of COVID-19
- The sandstone rock-head was present at very shallow depths throughout the scheme, and hard dig was encountered on the majority of excavations. We used machine mounted breakers at road crossings and augers at street lighting column installations to overcome associated reduced outputs and meet programme requirements
- Nightshift working – Coordination of resources for maximum output each nightshift
Live traffic /busy junction, liaison was required with route management from Highways England and Transport for Greater Manchester.
Added Value
- Works completed at night. All traffic management was placed out and removed each night shift. This maintained full daytime capacity at this busy junction and minimised disruption to the local road and motorway networks
- Removed, cleaned and re-laid existing footpath paving instead of supplying and laying new as originally specified