M6 motorway closure leads to 'nine hour delays' in North Lancashire

Monday, 12 September 2022 11:21

By Greg Lambert @greglam72

Traffic gridlocked on the M6 southbound near Junction 34 on Sunday afternoon.

The closure of a section of the M6 motorway led to traffic chaos in North Lancashire with motorists reporting delays of up to nine hours.

Motorists reported being stuck in gridlock on the M6 and A6 after a section of road between Lancaster and Preston was shut over the weekend.

One reader who posted on the Beyond Radio Facebook page said on Saturday: "We have been sat on the M6 in this for nine hours now, weekend plans abandoned, we just want to get home."

Another referred to the situation as "a nightmare".

Here is a video of traffic gridlocked on the M6 near Junction 34 on Sunday afternoon.

The section of southbound carriageway between Junction 33 at south Lancaster and Junction 32 at Preston was closed due to essential bridge maintenance work.

The work is for waterproofing and barrier maintenance, said National Highways: North West.

The closure was scheduled for between 9pm on Friday, September 9, and 5am on Monday, September 12.

However, two of the lanes reopened late on Sunday afternoon, before the road closed again at midnight to complete the weekend's works. It was open again as scheduled on Monday morning.

Motorists also experienced delays on the A6 over the weekend, as the road was used as a diversion by many motorists.

See this photo taken on Sunday morning of slow-moving traffic on the A6 near Garstang. Photo by Dale Lambert.

Other motorists took to social media to suggest alternative routes using back roads, to avoid the congestion.

There will be further closures of the M6 between Junction 32 and 33 over the next three weekends, again from Fridays at 9pm to Mondays at 5am.

Signposted diversions will be in place.

Drivers travelling on the M6 northbound can leave the M6 at junction 32, onto junction 1 of the M55 (Broughton Roundabout), then onto the A6, before rejoining the M6 at junction 33.

Southbound traffic will leave the motorway at junction 33, onto the A6, then onto junction 1 of the M55, re-joining the M6 at junction 32.

All work is subject to weather conditions, with the potential to move work to the weekend of October 7-10 if poor weather prevents work taking place during any of the weekends during September.

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