A57 - M60 - M67
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Ordnance Survey map Alternative aerial view
Where is it?
East of Manchester, where the ring road meets what is supposed to be the road to Sheffield.
It was spotted by David Peek.
What's wrong with it?
I have said many times before - and, no doubt, I'll carry on saying it until long after the point it's ceased to be interesting - that Bad Junctions isn't here to list all the plain-vanilla roundabout interchanges that can't cope with the traffic.
Is this a plain vanilla roundabout interchange that just can't cope any more? Well, no, it's rather more interesting than that. It's a half-built apology for what was meant to be, a botch-up on a grand scale, and one that contains a pretty dodgy bit of design work to boot. Fittingly enough, it forms one end of the M67, the motorway for which the term "bodge job" might have been coined.
It wouldn't be quite so unpleasant were it not for the odd decision to have the A57 to the east join the M67 immediately before the roundabout, so traffic from each road must take it in turns to move on to the junction.
Is it even worth mentioning that there are traffic lights all the way around the roundabout? No, I thought not. It goes without saying.
Why is it wrong?
Once upon a time, the dreamy optimists who ran things in this part of the world had a really groovy idea. Hey, they said, let's build a motorway from Manchester to Sheffield. Yeah, that'll work! Let's start it right in the middle of Manchester and send it out over the Pennines. That's feasible, right? Of course it is.
The sun was shining and everyone was smiling as they built phase one of their plans, the Denton and Hyde bypasses, temporarily terminating at Denton Interchange. Then they had to go at that point, to enjoy the sight of a little girl with a red balloon and a lollipop, or a little kitten with a ball of string, or something like that. In the meantime evil Mr Reality - the baddie of this little melodrama - crept in by the back door and threw a big load of planning inquiries, feasibility studies, environmental impact assessments and cost-on-benefit analyses all over the Manchester to Sheffield Plan, which squashed it.
The M67 is, therefore, forever doomed to be a big three-lane motorway that bangs into this roundabout, with the A57 piling in from the left-hand side at just the wrong moment, and there's nothing anyone can do about it. Naughty Mr Reality.
What would be better?
To the east of the junction are a pair of concrete ramps pointing up into the air - the intended starting point of the flyover that would have carried the motorway over the roundabout. The locals refer to this as the ski jump.
This is a bit of a mad idea, but bear with me. Maybe there's scope to use the ski jump to make things a bit better? Either a flyover straight ahead into the A57 or, if it would help more, one sliproad from the M67 to the M60 northbound would seem easy enough to provide, and would get right-turning traffic off the roundabout.
I know, I know. Me and my silly ideas.
Right to reply
Hate this junction? Or do you think it hasn't had a fair trial? Make yourself heard! Post a comment.
These are all the comments that have been made about this junction.
Brendan warns the unfamiliar:
I occasionally use this junction and have no problem navigating it, but be driven there by someone who's not seen it before and confusion reigns - for me it has all the hallmarks of a bad junction, confusion, panic and obstructed flow.
Chris finds it an odd place all round:
Well, as an occasional user, I find the only troublesome bit is coming from the north on the M60 and heading towards Sheffield. I've never yet hit the correct lane at the right time.
Passing underneath is another transport oddity, the route of the once-a-week-in-one-direction-only train from Stockport to Stalybridge.
Andy Rathe stays in lane:
One problem I frequently encounter at this junction is appalling lane discipline, particularly when turning right. People don't notice the lanes move over to the left as you negotiate the roundabout. This means you can be following your lane round, using correct lane discipline, only to find someone who was in the lane on your left is now trying to occupy your lane.
This happens so often when travelling M60 North - M67 East that it's often almost impossible not to be shoved across to the lane on your right.
David Unwin completes the missing links:
This junction originally was more intended for local traffic to access the two motorways, the M67 and the then M66 (now part of the M60) with some limited interchange between the two motorways. However, because other related schemes were never built this junction now has to act as a major motorway to motorway interchange.
As previously mentioned the M67 was planned to go over the top of the roundabout and continue into central Manchester. At the other end it was planned to continue as a bypass of Mottram on the A57 and Hollingworth and Tintwistle on the A628 into open country. For various reasons, political and otherwise, neither were built.
It was assumed that much local traffic intending to travel north of Manchester would use the local route through Ashton to join the then proposed M66 further north than Denton whilst most long distance transpennine traffic would use the M62.
At that time it was intended to continue the then M63 Stockport east-west bypass eastwards from its junction with the M66 at Bredbury as a bypass of Bredbury and Gee Cross, linking up with the then new dual carriageways on the A560 at Hattersley, which meet the M67 at its current eastern terminus. Thus southbound traffic would use the A560 - M63 route instead of the M67 and Denton junction. However this is another scheme which came to nothing, along with the southern extension of the then M66 as an A6(M) bypass of Stockport and Hazel Grove. What now forms the tight bend on the main carriageway of the M60 at Bredbury through another strangely laid out junction were originally the slip roads designed to connect two crossing motorways, the M66 - A6(M) and the M63, which, along with part of the M62, were merged to form the now M60.
Andrew Booth is stuck at the other end of the M67:
I disagree with this being a bad junction. I frequent this junction quite often, and never really have had any real hold up. Yes its not ideal, but the trouble is at the other end of the M67 with the pathetic excuse for the main road which is the A57 to Glossop/Sheffield.
