Clayton Brook Interchange

Clayton Brook Interchange is where three motorways meet, two full and one pathetic. It is junction 9 of the M61 and junction 2 of the M65.

History

Original 1970s proposal

There was no junction here when the M61 opened. During the late 1960s the area around Preston was designated a new town. A road network was planned to serve the new town with a major route, the Eastern Primary, joining the M65 at Clayton Brook. The junction layout was finalised by 1974 and was to be a south facing fork. A year later it became apparent that the M65 may join the M61 at Clayton Brook rather than the original agreed location of Prospect Hill Interchange. If this was to be the case the M65 would flow onto the Eastern Primary and a full access junction provided.

New towns are rarely completed as originally intended and nothing happened at Clayton Brook until a decade later when a limited access south facing junction was opened in 1987 along with a portion of the Eastern Primary as far as Preston Road, this is shown as A6 on contemporary mapping. The junction was not of the freeflowing type as originally planned but instead was built with a distinct kink and a small roundabout on the entry slip to allow another bridge to be built and convert it into a roundabout GSJ at a later stage. This may have been in relation to the alteration of the route of the M65 as mentioned in the last paragraph.

Another decade was to pass until the junction opened in its present form in 1997 with the completion of the M65. The Walton Summit Motorway opened at the same time.

Routes

Route	To	Notes
M61	Lancaster (M61)
M61	Manchester, Chorley, Leeds (M62)
M65	Preston, Leyland
M65	Burnley, Blackburn
WSM	Walton Summit
EP	Preston