M42 Junction 6 improvement

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darkcape
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Re: M42 Junction 6 improvement

Post by darkcape »

Unconfirmed reports say Skanska has been awarded a £282m contract for this scheme.
A bit surprising as I wasn't aware an invitation to tender had gone out and we had the revised route recently. Articles reporting construction to start March 2020, only 6 years after this junction was last tinkered with.
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tom1977
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Re: M42 Junction 6 improvement

Post by tom1977 »

darkcape wrote: Mon Mar 11, 2019 21:34 Unconfirmed reports say Skanska has been awarded a £282m contract for this scheme.
A bit surprising as I wasn't aware an invitation to tender had gone out and we had the revised route recently. Articles reporting construction to start March 2020, only 6 years after this junction was last tinkered with.
Its a regional framework construction contract but its strange that they will be starting work before the DCO process finishes
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Bryn666
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Re: M42 Junction 6 improvement

Post by Bryn666 »

I was half expecting if Chris Grayling got anywhere near the contract that a small chip shop in Aberfeldy would have won it.
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A320Driver
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Re: M42 Junction 6 improvement

Post by A320Driver »

Not local to the area (not aware of this scheme until now) but I have on occasion driven through the junction (and visited the NEC).

I’m flabbergasted...we have here a major ((the major?) transport hub in the West Midlands, being the confluence of two major motorways, an international airport, railway station, and convention centre. What do HE do? Make some journeys more convuluted.

The new junction is crying out to be a free flow link, and a new bridge is needed across the A45 towards M42 south.

Then again, we have this presented to us by the same morons who have signed off:
M1 J13,
the proposed M25 J10 improvement,
The severing the M181 and building a new bridge anyway,
M6 J19 - build a new bridge anyway but keep the signalised roundabout.

And in the words of BoJo, “spaffing” £75million “up the wall” at Polegate when there’s a pre-made junction half a mile away to tie in a new dual carriageway.



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Peter Freeman
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Re: M42 Junction 6 improvement

Post by Peter Freeman »

A320Driver wrote: Fri Mar 15, 2019 13:52 Then again, we have this presented to us by the same morons who have signed off:
M1 J13,
the proposed M25 J10 improvement,
The severing the M181 and building a new bridge anyway,
M6 J19 - build a new bridge anyway but keep the signalised roundabout.
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c2R
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Re: M42 Junction 6 improvement

Post by c2R »

Development Consent order published today: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/528

This Order authorises Highways England to undertake works to Junction 6 of the M42 and to carry out all associated works and to construct a new 2.4 kilometre dual carriageway connecting a new Junction 5A of the M42 with the existing Clock Interchange. Junction 6 lies on the eastern edge of Birmingham, approximately 15 kilometres from the city centre, the nearest town being Solihull in the West Midlands. The Order permits Highways England to acquire, compulsorily or by agreement, land and rights in land and to use land for this purpose. The Order also includes provisions in connection with the maintenance of the authorised development. A copy of the plans, engineering drawings and sections, the book of reference, the environmental statement and the OEMP mentioned in this Order and certified in accordance with article 44 (certification of plans and documents, etc.) of this Order may be inspected free of charge during normal working hours at Highways England, 2 Colmore Square, Birmingham B4 6BN.
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Ruperts Trooper
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Re: M42 Junction 6 improvement

Post by Ruperts Trooper »

ais523 wrote: Fri Feb 08, 2019 21:05 The real problem with the junction complex (Junction 6 itself and the interchanges for the airport and the A452 right next to it) is that there are just way too many main movements. Even apparently major junctions like "one motorway crossing another" have only twelve movements. The junction complex here, though, has something like 28 major movements and a bunch of minor movements (if I've counted correctly, there are 132 possible movements at the junction, and very few of them are completely implausible).
And the volumes can be high on most of the potential movements when it's really busy - I avoid it like the plague when there's a big show on at the NEC.
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ais523
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Re: M42 Junction 6 improvement

Post by ais523 »

Travelling along the M6 recently, I saw two sets of construction work near the carriageway. One set, in the vicinity of the B4438/A452 roundabout, was almost certainly HS2-related. The other, however, was too far south to be likely to be HS2-related, and was in the vicinity of the planned junction 5A.

This leads me to suspect that work has started on building this scheme, although I'm not certain (the scheme's website mentions only preliminary work). Could someone confirm/deny that junction 5A is presently under construction?
darkcape
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Re: M42 Junction 6 improvement

Post by darkcape »

I believe they started prelim works in January 2020 so construction is happening yes
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Re: M42 Junction 6 improvement

Post by Isleworth1961 »

Ruperts Trooper wrote: Wed May 27, 2020 13:24 And the volumes can be high on most of the potential movements when it's really busy - I avoid it like the plague when there's a big show on at the NEC.
I've found the traffic volumes vary tremendously when attending a big show. I usually go to what is now known as Motorcycle Live, always on a weekday. Sometimes I've been queuing for miles on the M42, with the roundabout virtually gridlocked, and then hardly moving all the way into the NEC. Other times I've driven straight in, with hardly any other traffic, and thinking I've got the week wrong! Only the reassurance of the signs once within the NEC complex confirms I'd not got it wrong.
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Jonathan B4027
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Re: M42 Junction 6 improvement

Post by Jonathan B4027 »

darkcape wrote: Sat Aug 01, 2020 10:47 I believe they started prelim works in January 2020 so construction is happening yes
Ive not seen anything going on whilst using Catherine De Barnes lane unless the house that was on the corner of the junction of Shadowbrook Lane is going to be a compound. Nothing on the M42 or at the Clock.
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Re: M42 Junction 6 improvement

Post by Big L »

ais523 wrote: Fri Jul 31, 2020 14:38 Travelling along the M6 recently, I saw two sets of construction work near the carriageway. One set, in the vicinity of the B4438/A452 roundabout, was almost certainly HS2-related....
VMS signs up today saying a full-weekend closure of the M42 both ways - I'm guessing they are lifting the bridge onto the abutments. I can't see anything else obvious that would need a single full closure.
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Alderpoint
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Re: M42 Junction 6 improvement

Post by Alderpoint »

Big L wrote: Mon Aug 03, 2020 23:37
ais523 wrote: Fri Jul 31, 2020 14:38 Travelling along the M6 recently, I saw two sets of construction work near the carriageway. One set, in the vicinity of the B4438/A452 roundabout, was almost certainly HS2-related....
VMS signs up today saying a full-weekend closure of the M42 both ways - I'm guessing they are lifting the bridge onto the abutments. I can't see anything else obvious that would need a single full closure.
Yes came through southbound Saturday PM and the bridge is sitting off the east side of the carriageway on moveable hyraulic platforms ready to be wheeled into place - seems to be a common mechanism for new bridges now as causes much less disruption than building the new bridge in place.
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Re: M42 Junction 6 improvement

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Make poetry history.

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Re: M42 Junction 6 improvement

Post by Phil »

Bridge installed and motorway reopened 22hrs ahead of schedule!

https://mediacentre.hs2.org.uk/news/hs2 ... t-two-days
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Re: M42 Junction 6 improvement

Post by mikehindsonevans »

Phil wrote: Sun Aug 09, 2020 16:38 Bridge installed and motorway reopened 22hrs ahead of schedule!

https://mediacentre.hs2.org.uk/news/hs2 ... t-two-days
"ahead of schedule" is starting to become routine. "Well done" to all involved, but please keep putting contingency times into your plans, for when it rains, or kit breaks down, or something else happens to impact the normal smooth flow of the work plans.
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brummie_rob
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Re: M42 Junction 6 improvement

Post by brummie_rob »

For most weekend closures now, the contingency basically means the Sunday. Most jobs seem to be done on Saturday with a bit of tidying up before a Sunday evening reopening. Good PR for Highways England too.
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Re: M42 Junction 6 improvement

Post by Micro The Maniac »

c2R wrote: Wed May 27, 2020 13:09 Development Consent order published today: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/528
Notably:
(f)the construction of 1 no. emergency refuge area on the northbound carriageway at the locations shown on Sheet No. 2 of the works plans;
(g)the demolition of 3 no. emergency refuge areas on the northbound carriageway at the locations shown on Sheet Nos. 2 and 6 of the works plans; and
(h)the demolition of 3 no. emergency refuge areas on the southbound carriageway at the locations shown on Sheet Nos. 2 and 6 of the works plans.
Anyone would think there are already too many ERAs on the smart motorways
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Re: M42 Junction 6 improvement

Post by Micro The Maniac »

I note from the HE Website that an MSA is proposed, adjacent to this new J5A - although access appears impossible from any of the roads on the plan.

But let me be the first to predict north facing slips will be added if that proposal goes ahead...
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jackal
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Re: M42 Junction 6 improvement

Post by jackal »

Micro The Maniac wrote: Tue Aug 11, 2020 10:50But let me be the first to predict north facing slips will be added if that proposal goes ahead...
The north-facing slips are discussed extensively in the thread and HE documentation. Here, e.g., is my post from Feb 2019:
jackal wrote: Tue Feb 05, 2019 20:07 HE want to have their cake and eat it. The documents continually say the north-facing slips and MSA could be added, but that they contravene DMRB weaving requirements. In this way they claim the advantages of the north-facing slips while trying to weasel their way out of the safety implications.

The whole scheme is premised on this sleight of hand. Without it there's no reason to have the dumbbell when a freeflow junction with a loop would have lower impact on the ancient woodland by miving the merge north. And indeed having J5A there at all, with a long link road dangling through greenbelt to reach it, only really makes sense if it's linking to something - the MSA. If you're just trying to take traffic off J6 you'd naturally do that as close to J6 as you can, reducing cost and environmental impact, like every other upgrade of a stackabout (Lofthouse, M62 J6, M25 J2, 10, and 28, etc).
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