Motorists warned ahead of M62 closures

Motorists person been warned to expect delays arsenic parts of a large motorway volition beryllium closed to let for the installation of a caller £22m railway bridge.

Work to regenerate the span betwixt Manchester and Leeds connected the M62 successful Castleton, adjacent Rochdale, has begun and volition spot portion of the roadworthy unopen from 21:00 BST connected Friday until 06:00 connected Monday.

The roadworthy closure to instal the span "could not beryllium avoided", Network Rail said, with it being repeated betwixt 20 and 23 September.

Dee Murray from National Highways said motorway postulation would person to spell connected to section roads, adding: "It's each been planned but it is going to beryllium highly busy."

The archetypal railway span was built successful 1969 and was fixed a lifespan of 60 years.

Demolishing it safely was a hard process with engineers having been connected tract since February.

Concrete peckers volition beryllium utilized to instrumentality the aged span distant earlier the debris is removed and the caller span volition beryllium wheeled down the motorway and fitted into place.

Olivia Boland from Network Rail said workers began by removing a motorway embankment: "We've had to implicit a large earthworks strategy and physique a caller roadworthy to motorway specification which volition instrumentality the value of each our machinery."

She told BBC Radio Manchester: "Before demolition, we enactment heavy pieces of wood down connected the carriageway to support the roadworthy surface.

"We past usage 4 concrete-pecking machines to guarantee that we're not going to person a large catastrophic collapse.

"After demolition, we past usage distant power vehicles to assistance the span up, instrumentality it down the motorway and hole it into its last position."

Sections of the motorway volition beryllium closed implicit the play from 21:00 BST to 06:00 connected Monday and past again betwixt the aforesaid hours from 20 September to 23 September.

There volition beryllium antithetic arrangements for closures of each carriageway. The westbound carriageway volition beryllium unopen betwixt junction 20 astatine Rochdale and junction 19 astatine Heywood.

Eastbound postulation volition beryllium stopped from junction 18 astatine Simister Island to junction 20 astatine Rochdale.

Mr Murray said it was "a immense operation", adding determination was "no mode of removing this span without closing the motorway and the railway line".

"It means we're putting that motorway postulation connected to section roads. It's each been planned but it is going to beryllium highly busy.

"Obviously we've got to re-use this motorway afterwards truthful erstwhile we're dropping this span we request to support the carriageway underneath with matting.

"That's wherefore we tin get the motorway unfastened truthful rapidly aft the works."

The railway enactment betwixt Manchester Victoria and Rochdale has besides unopen until 25 September portion enactment takes place.

The replacement span is expected to past 120 years.