Eccles Interchange

Eccles Interchange, west of Manchester, is currently the meeting point of the M60, M62 and M602, but these motorways have a history of being renamed. It is junction 12 of both the M60 and M62 and junction 1 of the M602. It was junction 1 of the M63.

If the interchange were rotated clockwise by about 50 degrees, it would be very similar in shape, size and orientation to Hamilton Interchange on the M74, though it lacks Hamilton's pedestrian and cycle routes, which have their own bridges.

History

The junction location before construction of M62

The M62 originally simply passed through the junction location, here in 1968

The junction in three-quarters open form in 1972

The north-south route through Eccles Interchange was opened in 1960 as the Stretford-Eccles Bypass, M62, corresponding to what is now M60 junctions 7-13. The number M62 was chosen because the proposed northern extension beyond J13 was planned to curve east and form the Lancashire-Yorkshire motorway.

The east-west route through Eccles Interchange was originally known in planning as the South Lancashire Motorway, M52, but by the late 1960s the proposed numbering had changed. The southern arm would be renamed M63, the western arm would be M62 like the northern arm, and the eastern arm would be M64.

The interchange was substantially completed by November 1971 when the eastern arm opened. At this time the southern arm was indeed renamed M63 but the eastern arm opened as M602, which it remains to this day. The interchange achieved full opening in April 1974 when its western arm opened as M62.

In 1998, the north-south route through the interchange was renamed M60 as part of a plan to give that number to the whole of the (then still incomplete) Manchester Outer Ring Road, which had previously comprised sections of the M62 and M66 and the whole of the M63. As a result the number M63 was abolished. The northern arm of the interchange continued to be a multiplex of M60 and M62, but now with M60 as the dominant or visible number, rather than M62 as before.

In connection with a widening of the southern arm of the interchange (then M63, now M60) in the 1980s, a section of southbound collector-distributor road was built to the south of the interchange, and the two slip roads which had previously fed into the main carriageway were modified to feed into the CD road.

Routes

Route	To	Notes
M60	Ring Road (N & E), Preston, Bolton (M61), Bury (M66), (Leeds (M62), Leigh
M60	Ring Road (S), M'cr Airport, Trafford Park
M62	Liverpool, Warrington, B'ham, Chester (M6)
M602	Salford, M'cr city centre
M52	Liverpool, Warrington, B'ham, Chester (M6)	proposed number for M62 west of the junction
M52	Salford, M'cr city centre	proposed number for M602
M62	Preston, Bolton (M61), Bury (M66), (Leeds (M62)	now M60
M63	M'cr Airport, Stretford, Stockport	now M60
M64	Salford, M'cr city centre	proposed number for M602

Links

• Roads.org.uk:Bad Junctions