Transport in the West Midlands - M6 Motorway (Paperback)

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 194. Not illustrated. Chapters: M6 Motorway. Excerpt: Road of the United Kingdom The M6 motorway runs from junction 19 of the M1 in Catthorpe, near Rugby via Birmingham then heads north, passing Manchester, Preston, Carlisle and terminating at Gretna. Here, at the Scottish border it joins the A74(M) which continues to Glasgow. The M6 is the longest motorway in the United Kingdom and one of the busiest. It incorporates the first length of motorway opened in the UK and forms part of a motorway "Backbone of Britain," running north-south between London and Glasgow via the industrial North of England. It is also part of the east-west route between the midlands and the east coast ports. The section from the M1 to the M6 Toll split near Birmingham forms part of the unsigned E-road E 24 and the section from the M6 Toll and the M42 forms part of E 05. The M6 motorway runs from junction 19 of the M1 in Catthorpe near Rugby in central England, passes between Coventry and Nuneaton, through Birmingham, Walsall and Stafford and near the major cities of Wolverhampton and Stoke-on-Trent. The motorway has a major junction onto the M56 and M62 at Warrington, giving access to Manchester and Liverpool. The M6 then heads north past Preston and Lancaster. After the latter two cities it passes through Cumbria with some parts very close to the edge of the Lake District, and then passes Carlisle on its way to Gretna, before the motorway becomes the A74(M) at the Scottish border. The southbound M6 as seen from a bridge just south of junction 29, Preston, 2008The first section of the motorway and the first motorway in the country was the Preston by-pass. It was built by Tarmac Construction and opened by the Prime Minister Harold Macmillan on 5 December 1958. In January 1959 the Preston By-pass was closed because of rapid surface deterioration over a stretc...