M57 motorway

UK motorway routebox
motorway= M57
length-mi= 14
length-km= 22.5
direction= Southeast - Northwest
start= Huyton
destinations= Liverpool
end= Netherton
Switch Island
opening-date= 1972
completion-date= 1974
junctions= 1 -

The M57 motorway, also known as the Liverpool Outer Ring Road, is a road in England. Designed as a bypass road for Liverpool, it is 14 miles [http://www.iht.org/motorway/m57lpoolorr.htm The Motorway Archive - M57 Scheme Page] ] (22.5km) long and links various towns east of the city, as well as the M62 and M58 motorways.

The M57 is one of the few motorways in England that does not connect directly to any other motorways - both the M62 and M58 are accessible only via a very short section of all-purpose road.

Route

Starting at the Tarbock Interchange in Cronton, at the end of the A5300, the motorway heads north to the east of Huyton and west of Prescot and crosses the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. It then runs across the north east of Huyton's suburbs before running west of Knowsley Village. After meeting the A580 at a split junction (numbered 4 & 5), it continues north west between Fazakerley and Kirkby, passes under the Kirkby and Ormskirk branches of the Merseyrail Northern Line before ending on Switch Island near Aintree. The motorway provides one of the main access routes to Aintree Racecourse.

History

The M57 was planned to be a complete bypass of Liverpool, meeting each of the main roads out of the city [ [http://www.pathetic.org.uk/current/m57/ Pathetic Motorways - M57] ] . As is normal in the United Kingdom, the M57 was to be built in stages. The first two opened were [ [http://www.iht.org/motorway/m57lostat.htm The Motorway Archive - M57 Dates Page] ] :
*Junctions 1 to 4 were opened in 1974 as phase 2.
*Junctions 4 to 7 were opened in 1972 as phase 1.

Phase 1 was proceeded with more rapidly as there had been industrial growth in the area, and it was considered important to improve traffic connections as soon as possible. The original plans for the route anticipated an extension south to the A562.

At Switch Island, the junction was constructed to allow an extension of the M57 towards the A565 near Thornton and the end of the M58 has provision for slip roads to that extension to be constructed [ [http://www.iht.org/motorway/m58aintreem6.htm The Motorway Archive - M58] ] . Contemporary maps also showed a proposed southern extension, eventually constructed in the 1990s as the A5300 [ [http://www.pathetic.org.uk/current/m57/maps/ Pathetic Motorways - M57 Map] ] . There are no known plans to complete the northern extension.

Improvements are currently underway to the junction with the M62 at Tarbock Island, intended to provide free-flow links between the M57 and the M62 east of the junction [ [http://www.highways.gov.uk/roads/projects/4814.aspx Highways Agency Scheme Page] ] . Construction began in April 2007, with completion expected by autumn 2008.

Junctions

ee also

*List of motorways in the United Kingdom

References

External links

*CBRD
** [http://www.cbrd.co.uk/motorway/m57/ Motorway Database - M57]
** [http://www.cbrd.co.uk/badjunctions/57-58-59.shtml Bad Junctions - M57/M58/A59 [Switch Island)]
* [http://pathetic.org.uk/current/m57/ Pathetic Motorways - M57]
* [http://www.iht.org/motorway/m57lpoolorr.htm The Motorway Archive - M57]