National Highways has begun to open a new all lane running scheme (ALR) on the M6, which narrowly escaped the cancellation of the smart motorway programme last year.
The government-owned road operator said this week that work to open an extra lane in each carriageway of the M6 between junctions 21a and 26 had started at the weekend.
It added that by the end of this week there will be an extra lane open to drivers in both the northbound and southbound carriageways along 10 miles of the motorway.
It said this marks the beginning of the end of the £260m motorway upgrade that started in 2021.
In April last year, the then prime minister, Rishi Sunak, announced that 11 ALR schemes that had been ‘paused’ and three earmarked for construction during RIS 3 (2025 to 2030) would be cancelled.
The M6 scheme was one of two schemes to carry on, on the grounds that they were more than three-quarters complete.
The other scheme, the M56 junction 6 to 8 smart motorway, was completed in June 2023.
Main construction work on the M6 scheme was originally slated to be complete by March 2023 but it missed that deadline and last December the project was extended to add an extra 12 emergency areas to the planned 10, as well as resurfacing all lanes along most of the upgraded route.
National Highways said the newly-upgraded section will run at a maximum of 50mph and with other interim safety measures in place until work to calibrate technology, including stopped vehicle detection, is completed.
The upgrade is then expected to fully open, with the 70mph maximum national speed limit restored, by next spring.
Costain, has been the ‘on-site partner’ for the scheme as part of National Highways' SMP Alliance.
