M6 motorway

The M6 motorway runs from junction 19 of the M1 at the Catthorpe Interchange, near Rugby via Birmingham then heads north, passing Manchester, Preston, Carlisle and terminating at the Gretna junction (J45). Here, just short of the Scottish border it becomes the A74(M) which continues to Glasgow.

The M6 is the longest motorway in the United Kingdom and one of the busiest. It incorporates the first length of motorway opened in the UK and forms part of a motorway "Backbone of Britain", running north-south between London and Glasgow 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 the M6 Toll split near Birmingham forms part of the unsigned E-road and the section from the M6 Toll and the M42 forms part of.

Route
The M6 motorway runs from junction 19 of the M1 and from the beginning of A14 in Catthorpe near Rugby in central England, passes between Coventry and Nuneaton, through Birmingham, Walsall and Stafford and near the major cities of Wolverhampton and Stoke-on-Trent. The motorway has a major junction onto the M56 and M62 at Warrington, giving access to Manchester and Liverpool. The M6 then heads north past Preston and Lancaster. After the latter two cities it passes through Cumbria with some parts very close to the edge of the Lake District, and then passes Carlisle on its way to Gretna, before the motorway becomes the A74(M) a few hundred metres short of the Scottish border.

Planning and construction
The first section of the motorway and the first motorway in the country was the Preston by-pass. It was built by Tarmac Construction and opened by the Prime Minister Harold Macmillan on 5 December 1958. In January 1959 the Preston By-pass was closed because of rapid surface deterioration over a stretch of 100 yd "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.

Later the motorway was extended in both directions and is now 230 mi long.

The second phase of construction was completed in 1960, running to junction 35 and forming the Lancaster by-pass. Some 100 mi south, the Stafford by-pass was completed in 1962. By 1965, the remaining section of motorway towards Preston had been completed. 1968 saw the completion of the Walsall to Stafford link as well as the Penrith by-pass some 150 mi north in Cumberland. In 1970, the Lancaster-Penrith link was completed, along with a short section of motorway by-passing the south of Walsall. The most northernly 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 the A452 road several miles north-east of Birmingham city centre, including the 3½ miles of viaduct between Castle Bromwich(J5) and Gravelly Hill(J6), which is the longest viaduct in Great Britain.

Junction 6 in Birmingham is widely known as Spaghetti Junction because of its complexity.

On the elevated ground between Shap and Tebay, the north and south-bound carriages split apart. At this point a local road (to Scout Green) runs between the two carriageways without a link to the motorway.

The section of the M6 which runs over Shap Fell in Cumbria is 1050 ft above sea level, one of the highest points on any motorway in the UK (junction 22 of the M62 on Saddleworth Moor is higher). The motorway engineers here chose to follow the route of the Lancaster and Carlisle Railway engineered by Joseph 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.

The northbound entry slip road at Lancaster (J34) is unusually short, presenting problems for traffic joining the motorway. The M6 crosses the River 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.

The route was intended to replace the old A6, but a much closer approximation to the actual route of the M6 is provided by following the route: A45, A34, A50, A49, A6.

Operational
In July 1972 the UK Minister for Transport Industries announced that 86 mi of UK motorway particularly prone to fog would benefit from lighting in a project which "should be" completed by 1973. Sections to be illuminated included the M6 between junctions 10 and 11, and between junctions 20 and 27.

In March 2006, after 15-years of debate, the government authorised the construction of a 6 mi extension of the M6 from its then northern terminus near Carlisle to the Anglo-Scottish border at Gretna (the so-called "Cumberland Gap"), where it links into the existing A74(M). The road opened on 5 December 2008, the 50th anniversary of the M6 Preston Bypass. 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 Cumbernauld (via the M73) in the north to Exeter (via the M5) and to London (via both the M42/M40 and the M1) in the south.

The M6 Toll, Britain's first toll motorway, which bypasses the West Midlands conurbation to the east and north of Birmingham and Walsall and was built to alleviate congestion through the West Midlands, and opened in December 2003. Prior to the opening of the toll motorway, this section of the M6 carried 180,000 vehicles per day at its busiest point near Wolverhampton (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 about which the UK government has no influence were blamed for the low usage. Much traffic continues to use the M6 or the continued on the M1 and took the A50 or A52.

A proposed extension to the M6 Toll, known as the 'M6 Expressway' would have continued from the M6 Toll as far as Knutsford, at which point much of the existing M6 traffic leaves the M6 for Manchester was abandoned in 2006 due to excessive costs, anticipated construction problems and disappointing levels of usage of the M6 Toll.

Increased capacity between J11a and J19
The government wishes to improve reliability and capacity between Junctions 11 by Cannock and Junction 19 near Knutsford. In 2004, it favoured a new motorway, 'The Expressway' following a roughly parallel course to the existing M6. In July 2006, the government announced its decision to abandon the Expressway proposal, and favoured widening accompanied by demand-management measures, and have launched a study to consider options for providing additional capacity. The first phase of the widening could be completed by 2014, with the remaining sections following until full completion in 2017.

Hard shoulder running (junction 4-5 and 8 to 10a)
In October 2007, following a successful trial on the M42 in the West Midlands, the UK government have announced that two stretches of the M6 will be upgraded to allow the hard shoulder to be used as a normal running lane during busy conditions under a scheme called Active Traffic Management. The two stretches, between junctions 4 and 5 and between junctions 10a and 8, are two of the busiest sections on the entire motorway. The system could also be extended onto other stretches of the M6 as the government is going to undertake a feasibility study to determine other likely locations where this technology can be used.

Junction with M1 and A14
The Highways Agency is planning a major upgrade to the overloaded interchange between the M6, the M1 motorway and the A14 road at Catthorpe.

M6 motorway in culture
The M6 motorway was featured in the lyrics of Wings' 1973 single "Helen Wheels": "M6 south down Liverpool, where they play the west coast sound". The song was a single only release in the UK (1973) but was added to the US and international album release of Band on the Run.

Reference to the motorway appeared in the 1975 song "Moonlighting" by Leo Sayer via the lyric "Meanwhile the Carlisle turnoff of the M6 motorway, drinking cold black coffee, eating hot cup cakes".

A reference to the M6 motorway is made in the song "Family" from the 1989 New Model Army album Thunder and Consolation: "M6 southbound road side cafe on a wild wet windy night."

The song 'Northern', by experimental English group One More Grain describes a journey through Cumbria on the northbound carriageway of the M6 ("driving on the M6, headed north to Penrith"), mentioning many of the sites, towns and landmarks on the way e.g. Sedbergh, Howgill Fells, Metal Bridge, Rockcliffe Marsh and the Solway Firth.

Junctions
Data from driver location signs are used to provide distance and carriageway identifier information. Where a junction spans several hundred metres and the start and end distances are known, both distances are shown.

Legislation
Each motorway in England requires that a legal document called a Statutory 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 the 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
 * Statutory Instrument 1987 No. 2254: M6 Motorway (Catthorpe Interchange) Connecting Roads Scheme 1987
 * Statutory Instrument 1990 No. 2659: M6 Motorway: Widening between Junctions 20 and 21A (Thelwall Viaduct) and Connecting Roads Scheme 1990
 * Statutory Instrument 1991 No. 1873: M6 Motorway (Widening and Improvements Between Junctions 30 and 32) and Connecting Roads Scheme 1991
 * Statutory Instrument 1993 No. 1370: Lancashire County Council (Proposed Connecting Roads to M6 Motorway at Haighton) Special Roads Scheme 1992 Confirmation Instrument 1993
 * Statutory Instrument 1997 No. 1292: M6 Birmingham to Carlisle Motorway (At Haighton) Connecting Roads Scheme 1997
 * Statutory Instrument 1997 No. 1293: M6 Birmingham To Carlisle Motorway (at Haighton) Special Roads Scheme 1997 Transfer Order 1997
 * Statutory Instrument 1998 No. 125: The M6 Motorway (Saredon and Packington Diversions) Scheme 1998