M57 - M58 - A59 ("Switch Island")
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Ordnance Survey map - Alternative aerial view
Where is it?
M57 junction 7. The point where two major routes out of Liverpool cross over and meet the ring road.
Its layout has changed slightly since the aerial photographs were taken - the M57 now cuts through the roundabout to the island in the middle, adding another set of lights.
What's wrong with it?
Basically this is a semi-roundabout where five important (and insanely busy) roads all meet together and fight for space. It's quite simply overloaded on an unimaginable scale. It's the terminus of two three-lane motorways and three important dual carriageways and all five of them dump every single vehicle onto the same roundabout. To make things that bit more interesting, there's also a dual carriageway across the centre of the roundabout and some links are broken, the whole tangle being orchestrated by a carousel of traffic lights. The westernmost loop is now an inspection area for Customs and Excise, Police and the Highways Agency, and is no longer a functioning part of the junction.
Why is it wrong?
It's taking more traffic than it was ever meant to, and not only because traffic levels have been rising since it was built. This was not meant to be the end-point of the M57 or M58, which should have taken lots of traffic straight over the top. It's known for certain that the M57 should have gone straight on to end somewhere near Formby, or perhaps even at Southport, on the A565 completing an outer ring road for Liverpool. This is evidenced by the wide flare to the M57's carriageways where the motorway should have continued. The M58's carriageways do the same, and from the direction it would continue it looks as though it would have merged properly with the M57 to the north, though links to the south would have made more sense. Adding to the mess is the addition made in the early 1980's, originally intended to be a flyover to make things go smoothly, is actually on the same level as the rest of things, so now traffic goes across the roundabout as well as round it, hitting yet more traffic lights where it crosses over other traffic.
What would be better?
The best thing that could possibly be done to Switch Island would involve levelling the whole thing and starting again. This isn't easy though, and in fact it's pretty hard to see what could be done to make things any better. What would help would be to raise the A5036 over on an actual, real flyover and continue it onto the A59/M58, with sliproads dropping down onto the roundabout from there.
The Highways Agency have now done something about this - see Futures; the new layout is at the Highways Agency website [PDF document].
Right to Reply
E-mail me with your comments.
Hugo Nebula writes:
The M58 was originally meant to link with the A5036 to form a link from the white-hot technology centre of Skelmersdale New Town to the Seaforth Container base, where all the high value goods would be exported to the remnants of the Empire. As far as I know, the M58 was going to be grade separated, at right angles to the continuation of the M57.
Neil Gove adds:
I can't comment on the effectiveness of the 'improvements' as I no longer use it regularly. However, they have replaced a semi roundabout arrangement with two adjacent T-junctions, for traffic coming from the M57 and A59 (ex Liverpool) respectively. This has introduced a number of additional conflicts, particularly for traffic coming from the A59 (ex Ormskirk) and M58 towards the A59 (to Liverpool) or the A5036 (to Docks). I'll be able to comment more when I have tried it in the morning and evening peaks.
Dave Murten is a little more scathing:
Only Scouser Engineering could provide this dangerous situation.
At the northern end of the M57, northbound at the roundabout (?) junction with the A59 and M58, they have now widened it to 3 lanes and the right-hand lane is signed A59 and M58. At the second set of traffic lights a right turn arrow is on the lights BUT no upright sign actually indicates the road layout.
As I discovered the hard way, there are three roads separated by dual carriageway islands.
The first right turn is really a no entry with traffic travelling right to left through the roundabout. There are two No Entry signs at 90 degrees to the traffic approaching from the M57 but they are not visible as you approach the traffic light stop line.
The second right turn is only for traffic from left to right taking the turning to the M57 south. Get in these lanes and you are either going back down the M57 or through all the other lights on the roundabout and back to where you started.
The third right turn is actually the one that you want for the M58 and the A59 but not a single sign to indicate this.
Cars were taking the first turn and coming face to face with oncoming traffic, then having to reverse into the flow of traffic behind them. Others were taking the second turn and then, realising their mistake, were doing allsorts of manoeuvres to get back into the correct lanes.
This traffic layout MUST be clearly signed using upright signage before some serious accidents happen.
Dan Harvey finds the new layout problematic: (Apr 08)
I have to use this junction nearly every day when coming home from work, and these extra traffic signals have caused the traffic jams to only be separated by the junctions. If someone is very impatient they could be caught across the junctions blocking oncoming traffic.
If you are travelling south from the A59 or M58 to Copy Lane there are five sets of lights you must go through; the first at the A59/M58 Junction, the next three across Switch Island and the fifth at Copy Lane/Dunningsbridge Road (which in itself is a busy junction).
When the first set on Switch Island turns red, the middle and last ones can quite often be left free of any traffic. Then the lights don't change until traffic approaches them meaning it's start-stop all the way across. During the rush hours traffic heading south waiting to turn right onto Copy Lane/Northern Perimeter from Dunningsbridge leads all the way back to Switch Island.
I think this proposed link to Thornton would have been a great addition. Not only would it have reduced the traffic having to head up Dunnigsbridge Road to get to Copy Lane or Northern Perimeter Road but also the new roundabout at Brickwall Lane/Northern Perimeter/Buckley Hill Lane/Lydiate lane would have improved the existing Junction, especially when wanting to turn onto Brickwall Lane from Northern Perimeter. When travelling during the rush hours I tend to use this road as it is less congested than Switch Island but the angle the junction is at just adds to the problem.
With thanks to Chris McKenna and Paul for information on this page.
