News

An innovative scheme to reduce congestion and improve traffic flows at some of the busiest junctions on the motorway network is being introduced on the M6.

Work to install lights on motorway entry slip roads to better regulate traffic joining the motorway will begin at Junction 12 northbound on 26 January 2009. The system is expected to go live in April this year.

For the safety of the workforce and motorists the slip road onto the M6 northbound is planned to be closed for five nights (21.30 to 05.30) from Monday 26 January until Friday 30 January.

Motorists wanting to join the M6 northbound will be diverted southbound to Junction 11, where they can join the M6 northbound.

Ongoing work at Junction 12 is planned until 23 March, including proposed safety tests from 26 February to 12 March, with planned one-lane closures of the Junction at various times.

Congestion often occurs near junctions where vehicles attempt to join from the slip road when there is already heavy traffic on the motorway. By releasing just a few vehicles at a time, the lights prevent the merging and motorway traffic from bunching together and forming a bottleneck that delays everyone.

Sensors in the road monitor the congestion and adjust the timing of the lights. Traffic on the slip road is also monitored to minimise the possibility of queues forming on the local road network.

The system has been successfully used on motorways in parts of the Midlands and the North where it has been shown to reduce congestion and improve journey times on the motorway by up to nine per cent. It is also widely used in the United States, France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Highways Agency Project Sponsor, Andrew Blenkinsop, said:

"This system is one of the innovative techniques being introduced by the Highways Agency to deal with congestion and journey time reliability by making the best use of our existing capacity. The system will allow traffic to join the motorway more smoothly and safely.

"We have seen the system work well where it has already been implemented on other parts of the motorway network.

"Motorists joining the motorway may have a few seconds delay at the slip road lights, but there will be an overall benefit for all motorway users.

"To ensure the system works effectively, it is essential that fine tuning of the control software has to be carried out in the first week of operation. Motorists may experience some minor delays while this work is carried out."

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