National Highways closed the M60 junction 17 18 closure over the weekend to remove five overhead gantries, and the work left drivers in Manchester stuck on diversion routes for hours. The closure hit roads across Prestwich and Higher Blackley, with one journey turning into a six-and-a-half-hour diversion.
Whitefield diversion on Sunday
Catherine Kedward was travelling from Atherton to Chadderton on Sunday with her five-year-old daughter when she left the motorway at Whitefield. What should have been a 20-minute journey became a six-and-a-half-hour diversion, and she said the delays left her daughter hungry, thirsty and needing the toilet.
“We've had enough,” she said. Her account captures the scale of the disruption for motorists who were pushed off the motorway and onto local roads that were already carrying the diverted traffic.
Prestwich and Higher Blackley delays
Residents living along the designated diversion routes also described severe knock-on delays throughout the weekend. One resident said plans to go shopping were abandoned because the motorway closure made travel too difficult, while another said he tried Middleton Road after avoiding Sheepfoot Lane and found that road clogged up as well.
He said the detour took about half an hour longer than usual and that he had to ask his brother to drop him off on the road rather than outside the house. The closure was part of a major upgrade project at Simister Island, and National Highways said the scheme would create extra capacity, improve traffic flow and support future housing, employment and economic growth across the city region.
Simister Island gantry removal
Nicola Eastwell, a National Highways project manager, said: “The removal of these gantries is an important next step in delivering the scheme.” The project is expected to cost nearly £300m and is scheduled for completion in 2029, with another weekend closure of the route due between 10 and 12 October.
For drivers and residents on the diversion network, the practical choice is to plan around the October closure now, because the gantry removal has already shown how quickly a short motorway shutdown can spread onto local roads.
