M57 motorway

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M57 motorway
Length	14 miles 22.5 km
Direction	Southeast - Northwest
Start	Huyton
Primary destinations	Liverpool
End	Netherton Switch Island
Construction dates	1972 - 1974
Motorways joined	1 - M62 motorway 7 - M58 motorway

View of the M57 Northwards from the bridge on Knowsley Lane. On the left can be seen the three tower blocks of Stockbridge Village.

The M57 motorway also known as the Liverpool Outer Ring Road, is a road in England. It is designed as a bypass road for Liverpool. It is 14 miles^[1] (22.5km) long. The M57 motorway links various towns east of Liverpool as well as the M62 and M58 motorways.

[edit] 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. After meeting the A580 at a split junction (numbered 4 & 5), it continues north west between Fazakerly and Kirkby, passes under the Merseyrail Northern Line Kirkby branch and then the Merseyrail Northern Line Ormskirk branch before ending on Switch Island near Melling. The motorway provides one of the main access routes to the world famous Aintree Racecourse.

[edit] History

The M57 was planned to be a complete bypass of Liverpool, meeting each of the main roads out of the city^[2]. As is normal in the United Kingdom, the M57 was to be built in stages. The first two opened were^[3]:

• 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^[1]. The original plans for the route anticipated an extension south to the A562^[1].

At Switch Island, the junction has been built to allow an extension of the M57 and the end of M58 has provision for slip roads to the extension to be constructed^[4]. Contemporary maps also show a proposed southern extension that has been built as the A5300^[5]. There are no known plans to complete the northern extension.

[edit] Future plans

The Highways Agency are currently planning improvements to the M57's junction with the M62 that would provide free-flow links between the M57 and the M62 east of the junction^[6]. Subject to approval from the Secretary of State for Transport and funding being available, construction could start in summer 2007, with completion about two years later.

[edit] Junctions

[edit] Trivia

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.

[edit] See Also

• List of motorways in the United Kingdom

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• CBRD
  • Motorway Database - M57
  • Bad Junctions - M57/M58/A59 [Switch Island)
• Pathetic Motorways - M57
• The Motorway Archive - M57

	Motorways in the United Kingdom
Great Britain: M1 • M2 • M3 • M4 • M5 • M6 • M6 Toll • M8 • M9 • M10 • M11 • M18 • M20 • M23 • M25 • M26 • M27 • M32 • M40 • M42 • M45 • M48 • M49 • M50 • M53 • M54 • M55 • M56 • M57 • M58 • M60 • M61 • M62 • M65 • M66 • M67 • M69 • M73 • M74 • M77 • M80 • M90 • M180 • M181 • M271 • M275 • M602 • M606 • M621 • M876 • M898
A1(M) • A3(M) • A38(M) • A48(M) • A57(M) • A58(M) • A64(M) • A66(M) • A74(M) • A167(M) • A194(M) • A308(M) • A329(M) • A404(M) • A601(M) • A627(M) • A823(M)
	Northern Ireland: M1 • M2 • M3 • M5 • M12 • M22 • A8(M)	edit
Past: M41 • M63 • A18(M) • A40(M) • A41(M) • A102(M) • A6144(M)    Unbuilt: M12 • M15 • M31 • M64    Future: M4 Toll