New £60 million junction on M56 will help ease congestion for drivers heading into Cheshire from Deeside

A new junction on the M56 which will help maintain reliable journey times from North Wales through Cheshire and to Manchester is set to be built.

The new £60 million junction will be built between junctions 11 and 12 on the M56 at Runcorn and will provide a more direct route to the M56 from south Runcorn as well as connecting to the Mersey Gateway bridge.

The new junction will also benefit local residents by taking traffic away from residential areas as well as providing a new route to the Mersey Gateway bridge – an important new link between Cheshire and Merseyside.

New M56 J11a

The junction will link to a new crossroads for the A533 Southern Expressway and Murdishaw Avenue, north of the motorway.

The crossroads will replace the existing roundabout and be controlled by traffic lights, which will use sensors in the road to respond to changes in traffic levels.

Tim Gamon, Highways England’s regional delivery director for the North West, said:

“The new junction on the M56 will benefit local residents by taking traffic away from residential areas as well as providing a new route to the Mersey Gateway bridge – an important new link between Cheshire and Merseyside.”

Detailed designs for this major road project will now be developed with construction work due to start by spring 2020.

Funding for the scheme is being provided as part of the UK Government’s £15 billion Road Investment Strategy and will help boost the Northern Powerhouse by improving transport connectivity and reliability to help the economy of the North.

More details on the project are available here; M56 New Junction 11A.