M60 - M62 - M602
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Ordnance Survey map - Alternative aerial view
Where is it?
M60 junction 12, the point where the Manchester outer ring road ends its multiplex with the M62, and where the biggest and busiest road between the ring road and city centre begins.
It was spotted by David Lawton.
What's wrong with it?
This is actually two junctions next to each other, since they each have their own problems, and together they cause more. The four-way motorway interchange looks deceptively good from the air - free flowing, which is more than can be said for many similar junctions. Unfortunately, it is absurdly small; northbound on the M60, the merge from the M602 is screened by bridge columns, and there is no acceleration lane because of the proximity of the next bridge along (which is too narrow). Just yards later, traffic from the M62 merges, and this is where the fun really begins, because the sliproad is carrying the entire M62 traffic flow. This is channeled into a lane gain, which is helpful, at first sight. At this point, the 300m countdown marker for the exit to the A572 appears, and M60 traffic is trying to fight its way into the new left hand lane to leave here. Thrills and spills. But wait, there's more!
Coming southbound, three downhill (and therefore fast moving, in good traffic) lanes of the M60 are joined by a fourth lane from the A572. Just a few hundred yards further along, the left hand two lanes of the M60 (including this new one) both dive off to the left towards the M62 and M602. The weaving on this short section of motorway is terrible, and at rush hour is truly a sight to behold.
Nasty, isn't it? Wait, there's more still. All the traffic at junction 13 with the A572 and A575 is usually stuck in a traffic jam - waiting to enter or leave the M60. The majority of it doesn't actually want to be there anyway, and is coming or going between the M60 and A580, which has only limited access further north. There is nothing unusual in traffic backing up all the way onto the mainline of the M60, and let's not forget that northbound that means it starts to block up the entry from the M62.
This junction is utterly unfit for the hundreds of thousands of vehicles that pass through it each day. And we haven't even begun to explore the poor alignment of sliproads, unexpected lane drops in other places, or the M62 turning a sharp corner here. Truly a masterpiece.
Why is it wrong?
Once upon a time, this was a simple place. The M63 Stretford-Eccles bypass entered from the south, turned a corner and ended on a roundabout on the A572. Ah, peace and serenity. Bit by bit, extensions and additions came. The M602 to the east, the M62 to the north and west. The sad thing is that it was always planned to be this way - the M63 was built with the motorway interchange in mind, and the original terminal point was simply turned into another junction despite it being much too close to the new one.
What would be better?
Well, having considered all of the above, the quickly-dropped 1980's plan to build a parallel motorway to carry the M62 and bypass the whole fiasco between here and junction 18 is starting to look like a good idea. Failing that, let's close off junction 13 and add in the missing movements at the A580. Perhaps we could also re-align some sliproads in the knot at junction 12 too.
Right to Reply
E-mail me with your comments.
Peter Edwardson has his doubts:
I don't really feel that this belongs with the other "Bad Junctions". After all, it's a full free-flow motorway-to-motorway interchange, and we have precious few of those. The basic concept is fine, the problem is that it is built on too small a site, resulting in very tight slip roads, and it is grossly under capacity for the volume of traffic it has to carry, although in my experience this is by no means the most jam-prone section of the M60. A true "bad junction" needs to have more wrong with it than mere capacity problems.
The weaving distance between J12 and J13 is very short, but not significantly more so than plenty of other places on the motorway network (including M60 J2 to j3).
Chris Williams writes:
I wholeheartedly agree!
The only cure for this lot is to level the lot, and build a new layout similar to the old one but much larger, and close both J13 and J11 permanently! A dual carriageway link from J7 to the A57 could then be provided to replace J11.
Andy Rathe adds his own complaints:
It is probably worth mentioning that this bad junction encompasses J11 on the M60 too - the clockwise entry slip from the A57 at junction 11 on the M60 is only 300 yards from the exit slip at junction 12. Weaving is a problem here as well.
Also, if you leave the eastbound M62 at junction 12, heading for the M60, the exit for the anti-clockwise M60 is on the right of the slip-road - about 200 yards after the M62 lanes have split from the M602 lanes - and is very poorly signed. Traffic only has about 300 yards to get across to the right lane of the slip road in order to get to this exit. The number of last minute lane changes here are unbelievable, and obviously dangerous.
Paul Berry finds another fault:
I notice you also include the A572 junction on the map. I would also like to add that coming off the M60 soutbound to the roundabout there en route to picturesque Worseley, you meet it at such an acute angle that you cannot easily see traffic coming up on the main road through the tunnel under the M60. Add that to the list of things that could be improved.
Andrew Teale isn't convinced:
While I fully agree with your comments about the weaving between junctions 12 and 13 I'm not convinced by the idea of closing junction 13 and building extra sliproads to the A580. The East Lancs Road jams to a complete halt in rush hour; the slip road from the M61 to the eastbound A580 can queue for its entire 2-mile length when the rush-hour hits. This is mainly because the first two or three junctions either side of the M60 are signalised, and closing junction 13 will only increase the turning movement at these junctions. The local council has spent a lot of money closing rat-runs in the area which adds to the pressure on the main roads.
Mike isn't happy:
Just take a look how many lanes the M61/A666/A580 has just before you join the M60. There are too simply too many motorways/A-roads trying to merge into too small a space. It also fails to alleviate the burden of traffic on the local roads. The A6 and the A666 are full of traffic trying to avoid the area. In my ideal world the "through" traffic not destined for Manchester would never touch the Eccles interchange at all.
Sam finds the heart of the problem:
As a regular user of this junction it isn't actually that bad to use. The bends from M60 clockwise to the M602 are sharp but generally if you take it at a sensible speed you should be fine.
The problem in this area is the close proximity of M60 Junction 13 - anticlockwise M60 traffic heading into Manchester (M602) has to cross two lanes to get in the right lane from the junction. The weaving can be hell raising at rush hour.
Ric Hardacre nearly came a cropper:
This one got me on my way from Hull to North Wales. I approached from the north and clearly saw the overhead signs that said I needed to be in the left hand lane to get (back) onto the M62, but instead of being a couple of miles of warning before the lane split, it was about ten seconds before I noticed the road markings changing, so I started moving across, only to find someone having joined from the A572 trying to travel in the opposite direction (sorry!). Two cars into one lane do not go and once we'd managed not to collide I had to brake heavily and hold up a couple of people (sorry again!) just to get onto the sliproad before the concrete bridge support got me. At least next time I know to hug that left hand lane as soon as I see the A572 junction approaching.
Richard Rothwell agrees:
I fully agree with what you have said about this. I have travelled through this junction for many years, since that part of the M62 to the M6 opened up. I have always felt that the M62 has both the worst (this one) and best (its junction with the M6) junctions in Europe. They seem to have improved the slipway taking traffic eastbound from the M62 from Liverpool though, from what it used to be.
Garry Jones knows who to blame:
All these comments do not take into account the devastation being inflicted by Peel Holdings: first the Trafford Centre blocking junctions 9 and 10, and now plans to build the new Rugby stadium off the A572 and the Racecourse off the Worsley junction. No wonder they are against the congestion charging.
Rob O'Donnell is in the know:
I regularly use this junction, coming down the M60 southbound for the M602. You learn quickly to get in the middle lane as you pass j13, switch to left lane, and pull left again into the new lane after the junction, whilst trying to avoid traffic that just came on for the M60 having to pull quickly right across two lanes. Needless to say, signage is poor on the approach.
Oh, and there have been numerous lories falling over on, or even from, the bridges due to the tight turns on the slip roads!
