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I've tried my hand at improving Junction 15 of the M6. At present, the extremely tight trumpet interchange yields to a rather small roundabout to the A500 and the A519. I am by no means a local to the Stoke area, but I have tried to tailor the junction for the surroundings. The biggest change is the removal of the roundabout on the A500 (hooray! ) and replaced them with east facing slip roads onto the A519. Traffic from the M6 heading towards the A519 or the A5182 is now signposted to use the new Junction 14a, connecting to the A519. New C/D lanes have been added between the junctions to limit weaving and allow better freeflow on the M6. Not highlighted on the map is the new primary route status given to the A519 between the M6 J14a and the junction for the A5182.
This junction has been designed to limit the effects on Trentham Park Golf Course and the surrounding area as much as I could. Feel free to leave any improvements or comments on my design.
Jake
A J14A serves no purpose of it is there to just embellish the A519. Thats a lot of money for not very much. Then there is a bit of topography going on to the west aswell. The best solution would be to have a bigger Trumpet or Directional T at J15 and not bother with the A519 traffic using the A519 to access the M6 from Clayton would be just aswell served to use the A34/A500 which the majority already does.
JF2309 wrote:A J14A serves no purpose of it is there to just embellish the A519. Thats a lot of money for not very much. Then there is a bit of topography going on to the west aswell. The best solution would be to have a bigger Trumpet or Directional T at J15 and not bother with the A519 traffic using the A519 to access the M6 from Clayton would be just aswell served to use the A34/A500 which the majority already does.
Not necessarily. The A519 is the quickest route into the centre of Newcastle, and anywhere on the west side of the town would need to go further out of the way. Newcastle's hardly an insubstantial place, and dumping more traffic along A34 won't help - there are some pinch points on A34 as it stands.
Steven
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Just thinking outside the box here, could Newcastle be better serviced with a J15a via an upgraded A53 ? Lose the direct connection at J15 to the A519, by bridging over the A50, then build a new to standard junction 15, with a link west to the A5182 with a loop connection back to the A519.
Forgive my finger bob drawing style, must buy a stylus pen
I know this junction quite well, especially the dreadful 270 degree turn to go north onto the M6. The topography of the ground makes any improvement a major earth-moving exercise as the ground to the west rises steeply, the M6 is in a valley at this point. There is not a great deal of useful space at all !
For strategic traffic movements I would think there are two that should be made free-flow, the rest can use roundabouts - (1) M6 from the north exiting to get to the A50 to go east via the A500 and vice versa. (2) M6 from the south exiting to the A500 to get to the Potteries, and vice versa. For (1) there is obviously the option of using the A500 to Jn 16, and quite a bit of traffic does do this. Then there is the minor traffic from the A5182 and the A519 to be slotted-in. Jn 16 was recently improved, but there can still be serious queuing for A500-M6 North traffic. Again, lke Jn15, the main traffic direction is not free-flow. Jn 16 really needs to be 3 levels especially with all the planned developments in and around Crewe.
On the south-east side of Jn15 there is a fairly large HGV depot sitting in the land which would be needed for developing the junction to cater for free-flow links. There is also pre WW2 housing on the A519 south of the roundabout, and also along the B5038. These residents would not take kindly to CPOs to build sweeping new links A500-M6. One advantage the site has is that the A500 dives down a very steep hill to get to the A519 roundabout, so putting in a fly-over over the top here is easier. Putting in a new junction 14a is a good suggestion, but it need not be a double-bridge roundabout. Jn 17 just up the road at Sandbach already handles a lot of traffic with a roundabout one side and a set of traffic lights on the other, and this layout would do just as well with the main traffic flow using a remodelled Jn15. So Jn 15 with the main flows M6-A500-A50 catered for and anything else to go a new Jn14a would work in my opinion.
I see Haydn has also proposed something, but I think the topography is mostly against it. Certainly the A519 would need to go under the A500 not over it. His layout needs two new bridges, the old one being removed although probably cheaper than my suggestion.
Anything to make serious improvements rather than spatchcocking it is going to cost rather a lot of money. Not an easy junction to re-model by any means !!
Last edited by fras on Mon Apr 17, 2017 23:14, edited 1 time in total.
To be fair, that was a two minute sketch based upon my recollection of the issues when I last worked on this junction in 2000 putting the signals in - that was a cop out in the end, but we did investigate a hamburger with the A519 - essentially the solution as proposed above caters for a trunk road client and doesn't pander to the local needs of the local built up area
The A53 Jn 15a certainly does have merit, and need not involve any new bridges, it would be perfectly adequate if made like Jn 17. I was cynical that the Jn 17 improvements wouldn't work, but they actually work quite well.
The traffic along the A500 towards the junction and the A519 is becoming worse lately. I'm not sure if the traffic signal timing was changed by the Eddie Stobart depot but the queues are backing up onto the roundabout which then clogs it up for the SB traffic. Even on a Sunday this is bad. Those living on that short stretch of the A519 must be fed up of the queues outside, those homes must be devalued massively.
The whole junction needs sorting out ASAP but the smart motorway improvement offers little solution other than some new lighting and road markings it seems. Space is tight but a flyover of some sort would be great.
Haydn1971 wrote:Just thinking outside the box here, could Newcastle be better serviced with a J15a via an upgraded A53 ? Lose the direct connection at J15 to the A519, by bridging over the A50, then build a new to standard junction 15, with a link west to the A5182 with a loop connection back to the A519.
Forgive my finger bob drawing style, must buy a stylus pen
I think in terms of elevation, the A500 would bridge over the A519. And look at the contours on the new link road to the west! You'd be better off tunnelling under the existing road and swinging back north to a new junction further along, or heading off from the roundabout in a more northerly direction and looping round the hill.
techyknowsbest wrote:I've tried my hand at improving Junction 15 of the M6. At present, the extremely tight trumpet interchange yields to a rather small roundabout to the A500 and the A519. I am by no means a local to the Stoke area, but I have tried to tailor the junction for the surroundings. The biggest change is the removal of the roundabout on the A500 (hooray! ) and replaced them with east facing slip roads onto the A519. Traffic from the M6 heading towards the A519 or the A5182 is now signposted to use the new Junction 14a, connecting to the A519. New C/D lanes have been added between the junctions to limit weaving and allow better freeflow on the M6. Not highlighted on the map is the new primary route status given to the A519 between the M6 J14a and the junction for the A5182.
A key question is what the levels are. You've shown mainlines, collector lanes, slip roads and side roads crossing but no indication which is bridging over what, so it's hard to say how realistic or plausible those connectors are.
Haydn1971 wrote:Just thinking outside the box here, could Newcastle be better serviced with a J15a via an upgraded A53 ? Lose the direct connection at J15 to the A519, by bridging over the A50, then build a new to standard junction 15, with a link west to the A5182 with a loop connection back to the A519.
That leaves a nice bit of space for a park and ride or distribution park accessed from the north west corner of the roundabout there!
Stevie D wrote:I think in terms of elevation, the A500 would bridge over the A519.
I'd disagree on construction ease issues - the A519 would be easier to rebuild at a higher lever, firstly it's a local road, second design speed is lower, thus could be built in situ over the current A500 alignment without much disruption. The A500 could then be left at current levels, dipping into the bowl of the current roundabout.
Stevie D wrote:And look at the contours on the new link road to the west! You'd be better off tunnelling under the existing road and swinging back north to a new junction further along, or heading off from the roundabout in a more northerly direction and looping round the hill.
These aren't serious level issues, much could be resolved with an alignment closer to J15, without resorting to tunnels... which we just don't do in the UK
Haydn1971 wrote:I'd disagree on construction ease issues - the A519 would be easier to rebuild at a higher lever, firstly it's a local road, second design speed is lower, thus could be built in situ over the current A500 alignment without much disruption. The A500 could then be left at current levels, dipping into the bowl of the current roundabout.
Except that the A519 has property access quite close to the roundabout, which may need to be treated to a new access road with the bridge offline. If you are serious about the westward link then there is a case for raising the roundabout over the M6 higher than normal with extended slip roads, in order to ease the gradient on the link road, and this would strengthen the case for putting the A500 on a bridge. The road already dips down noticeably from the trumpet to the existing roundabout, if you want to drop the road below the A519 then it's going to be quite a climb up to the new roundabout even if it isn't superelevated.
I stopped short at a Paramics model, although one member who shall remain nameless will be complaining I've not used Aimsum
The Sabre Black ops geotechnical investigation helicopter is on standby, but awaiting the outcome from an audit of my pocket change before making an announcement on start of works
I recently added some maps to the J15 Wiki article of abandoned proposals to upgrade the junction. One of them features a J14a like the original post. In fact the whole layout is very similar bar the freeflowing connection to the northbound M6 which was altered to a roundabout following objections from local NIMBYs.
Hanchurch Interchange is junction 15 of the M6. It opened in 1962, and was a short-lived temporary terminus for the section to the south..
The junction suffers from a cramped layout with tight loops and short merges. Various proposals to rebuild the junction have been made over the years as part of widening the M6.
The first proposal was made in the early 1990s to parallel widen the M6. The junction would be rebuilt so
As long as all you highway engineers don't restrict the B5038/A519 shortcut from the A34 at Trentham to join the M6(N) at Jct 15 - that's the only route I use!
) and replaced them with east facing slip roads onto the A519. Traffic from the M6 heading towards the A519 or the A5182 is now signposted to use the new Junction 14a, connecting to the A519. New C/D lanes have been added between the junctions to limit weaving and allow better freeflow on the M6. Not highlighted on the map is the new primary route status given to the A519 between the M6 J14a and the junction for the A5182. 
