The M53 begins at the Wallasey Tunnel approach road and ends at the A55 Chester bypass, just after intersecting the M56.
An industrial service motorway and local link road for Birkenhead and all the Wirral. The M53 takes quite a high volume of traffic, serving as it does the oil refinery, chemical works, Lever brothers, and of course through traffic for the Tunnels.
The scenery! The amount of huge gasometers and cooling towers as the 53 bends and winds around each plant is an awesome sight. Its a strange little motorway, particularly when you get up by Birkenhead and all the junctions are for wierd little places.
Too many to choose from. See below for the thing I most remember.
There was a time (for example it is not in BA72, but it is in LR75) when the M53 ended (officially) at jcn 5 A41. Then from here to the A5117 via Ellesmere port was the M531. Eventually it was absorbed into the M53, but no real reason for it.
The M53 connects The Wirral to the M56, which gives you North Wales and Manchester and the east.
Most of my dad's aunties lived in Birkenhead, and periodically me and him would go see them. I remember vividly using the M56 to the A5117, then taking the M531 to the M53. I was always impressed by the immense industry around, on both sides of the motorway. Sometimes, we went in via Liverpool on the M62, and through the Tunnel, taking the M53 on the way back. Sadly, I have been to two funerals in Birkenhead, my great uncle Fred and then later my great auntie Margaret Rock. The odd thing is, the cortege has to use part of the M53 to get from Bebington to the crem. I both times and it is such a wierd feeling doing 35 in the inside lane as a convoy of about 10 vehicles with the hearse up front and all the real traffic speeding past. I suppose the locals must be used to it. I think the crem is in Arrow Park which is a couple of jcns up. Strange.