Motorway traffic jam funding hope (From Crewe Guardian)

Motorway traffic jam funding hope

1:00pm Monday 30th July 2012 in News By Matthew Taylor

AFTER years of tailbacks and delays, a frequently congested motorway junction in Sandbach may finally get a new road layout – if it is allocated Government funding.

The Highways Agency has announced that junction 17 of the M6 is being considered for overhaul as part of a funding bid to redesign the country’s worst congestion hotspots.

If successful, the funding would come from the Governments recently established £220m Pinch Point fund – set up to allocate funds to the worst traffic jam areas in the country.

The proposals include the installation of traffic signals on the Congleton side of the junction, along with a new roundabout at the top of the slip roads on the Sandbach side.

Cheshire East clr Jamie Macrae, cabinet member in charge of prosperity and economic regeneration, said: “Our highways team has been working with the Highways Agency for the last 12 months to find a solution to the problem of congestion at this key motorway junction.

“We are unhappy with the current situation and we will continue to push our case with the Department for Transport to try and secure funding.

“We cannot afford for the current situation to continue and worsen, it has been going on for far too long. It is restricting residents’ journeys and is harming our wider economic growth.”

Proposed improvements to junction 17 will be judged against other schemes nationally. Congestion hotspots that have been granted funding for improvements will be announced in autumn 2013.