I drive through new £78m M6 junction every week and I’m so glad it’s finally over

It was in the same month that Covid was declared a global pandemic when work finally started on Junction 10 of the M6. Outdated, and struggling to cope with modern volumes of traffic, something needed to be done to ease the congestion and regularly occurring tailbacks. Motorists often faced delays and frustration behind the wheel as they navigated the busy junction on the Walsall [1] and Wolverhampton border.

At a whopping cost of GBP78million, the ambitious project wasn’t going to be easy. The outbreak of coronavirus made things harder. Constructions crews arrived and cones were laid out on the ground.

Lane closures were put in place and temporary traffic lights installed. Get breaking news on BirminghamLive WhatsApp [3], click the link to join It was fair to say the roundabout resembled a construction site.

Residents living nearby said their curtains had ‘turned black’[4] from the dust and they rued the large and noisy dumper trucks driving up and down nearby. A three to four year deadline was set, the project anticipated to end sometime in 2023 or 2024. Unsurprisingly though, with such large construction projects, there were delays and a shorter turn around time was thrown out of the window.

As work dragged on, the occasional weekend and overnight closure of the M6 was brought in. One of the reasons was so workers could replace two 50-year-old bridges carrying traffic over the motorway, a huge task in itself, which saw two lanes upgraded to four. The junction’s slip roads were also widened and more lanes were added to the nearby A454 Black Country Route that flows off from it.

But in March this year, motorists and nearby residents got the news they’d been waiting for: the junction was fully open and all temporary traffic management measures lifted. As a motorist who regularly drives through the junction, I can say it’s a project that’s been well worth it. Despite the setbacks along the way, the new design is really impressive.

Traffic definitely feels like it flows more freely through and on and off the junction. There’s some gleaming new gantries that have been installed too, giving a modern look. And the grassy bank within the junction, sloping on either side of the M6, makes the space feel more open.

It can never be said there won’t ever be queues here as that’s not the case. Junction 10 is still one of the busiest routes in the region, even nationally. Since works were completed, I’ve still seen tailbacks on the M6 here and queues of traffic along the Black Country Route as motorists try to join the motorway.

But the queues have felt smaller and fewer and farther between.

It was definitely money well spent and has helped to free up a congested part of the region.

In a time of rising inflation, where it feels like government bodies are trying to save money here, there and everywhere, it’s nice to see an expensive project come to fruition for the benefit of many.

References

^ Walsall (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
^ M6 Junction 10 improvement works hit with delays as National Highways says ‘sorry’ (www.birminghammail.co.uk)
^ BirminghamLive WhatsApp (chat.whatsapp.com)
^ ‘turned black’ (www.birminghammail.co.uk)