M57 - M58 - A59
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Ordnance Survey map Alternative aerial view
Where is it?
M57 junction 7. The point where two major routes out of Liverpool cross over and meet the ring road.
Its layout has changed slightly since the aerial photographs were taken and the map was drawn - the M57 now cuts through the middle of what remains of the roundabout, meeting the dual carriageway A59 at a giant T-junction.
What's wrong with it?
This is a junction where five important (and insanely busy) roads all meet together and fight for space. It's quite simply overloaded on an unimaginable scale - there is probably no other flat traffic-light junction in the UK that caters for so many important roads.
It's the terminus of two three-lane motorways and three important dual carriageways, and all five of them dump every single vehicle onto the same mauled, disfigured roundabout. To make things that bit more interesting, there's also a dual carriageway across the centre of the roundabout, a T-junction in the middle where it meets the M57, and some links are broken, the whole tangle being orchestrated by a carousel of traffic lights.
The westernmost loop is now an inspection area for Customs and Excise, Police and the Highways Agency, and is no longer a functioning part of the junction.
Why is it wrong?
It's taking more traffic than it was ever meant to, and not only because traffic levels have been rising since it was built. This was not meant to be the end-point of the M57 or M58, which should have taken lots of traffic straight over the top. It's known for certain that the M57 should have gone straight on to end somewhere near Formby, or perhaps even Southport, completing an outer ring road for Liverpool. This is evidenced by the wide flare to the M57's carriageways where the motorway should have continued. The M58's carriageways do the same, with a proposed but now abandoned route heading towards Liverpool alongside the railway.
Adding to the mess is the addition of the road across the middle, which was originally intended to be a flyover to make things go more smoothly but which was actually built on the same level as the rest of things, so now traffic goes across the roundabout as well as round it, hitting yet more traffic lights where the various streams bang into each other.
What would be better?
I don't think it would be unreasonable to suggest that we evacuate Liverpool to make sure that nobody has to suffer the life-changing hardship that this junction causes. That would be a bit expensive though, and some people say an overreaction. What do they know?
In fact it's pretty hard to see what could realistically be done to make things any better. What would help would be to raise the A5036 over on an actual, real flyover and continue it onto the A59/M58, with sliproads dropping down onto the roundabout from there. The view of that flyover at sunset, with flocks of pigs soaring overhead, would be a sight to behold.
Right to reply
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These are the most recent comments on this junction. You can see all comments if you prefer.
An anonymous contributor writes:
A new layout has been proposed, and i believe it will be carried out. I can't see it reducing much of the congestion as traffic coming from the M58 and A59 will still have to use Dunningsbridge road to head West.
Hubert has seen it all:
The 1970's extension scheme was shelved amid protests from the huge numbers of people who were being served with compulsory purchase orders and, generally, bullied into letting a road go through. Part of the rationale for this was that the common understanding was that the M62 would loop round to meet the terminus on the Docks thus splitting the city in two.
Many of the commercial landowners from both the proposed M57 and M62 routes held out on strictly commercial grounds while playing politics and suggesting the Unions were to blame (At that time, Liverpool had frequent dock strikes, but far fewer than Southampton where the major landowners also had significant stakes. It is as much a matter of playing the local authorities off against each other as it is industrial relations).
The Route that the M62 was proposed to take is now being demolished (Wavertree Road) and will, most likely, link up to the Technology Park (which is built on former British Rail Land - at the time, this was the community suggestion rejected by most Businesses), thus leading out to Edge Lane and giving an additional route up to the M62.
The Route that the M57 was proposed to take is now Freeport and so the Landowners have got what they wanted. Insane amounts of profits from the containerised traffic coming through Liverpool. (There is as much, if not more tonnage coming through Liverpool now as in the 1960's - but the docks employ less than 20% of the people). This means that there is increasing traffic up the North of the City to the M57 but a large commercial incentive to prevent development of any additional road capacity.
Having said that, the roundabout alterations help in ways not imaginable to anybody considering the Junction in theory. It really does make the whole of the junction a lot less horrifying - except at rush hours: it seems to make it worse.
Can I book a ticket for evacuation now?
Mark Marsland sees what could have been:
I had an old 1980s A-Z and this showed the proposed Nortern Perimiter Road from Switch Island. The route was to go between Thornton and Ford following closely the path of the Leeds/Liverpool Canal and terminate at the traffic Island at Bridge Road, Seaforth. As with all good and needed schemes, shelved.
Simon Patterson looks behind the scenes:
Whilst everyone jumps the gun and says that there is now a new set of lights to contend with, in theory, the A59/South Roundabout merge has had its lights decomissioned, so in actual fact there are the same amount of signal sites experienced as there used to be (with exceptions made for the new toucan crossings). The signals are also SCOOT linked, and thus try to move traffic through with minimal delay. However, the close spacings of the signals apparently force SCOOT to make sacrifices in places. This does lead to queues - but they are nowhere near as bad as they used to be.
Dan Harvey finds the new layout problematic:
I have to use this junction nearly every day when coming home from work, and these extra traffic signals have caused the traffic jams to only be separated by the junctions. If someone is very impatient they could be caught across the junctions blocking oncoming traffic.
If you are travelling south from the A59 or M58 to Copy Lane there are five sets of lights you must go through; the first at the A59/M58 Junction, the next three across Switch Island and the fifth at Copy Lane/Dunningsbridge Road (which in itself is a busy junction).
When the first set on Switch Island turns red, the middle and last ones can quite often be left free of any traffic. Then the lights don't change until traffic approaches them meaning it's start-stop all the way across. During the rush hours traffic heading south waiting to turn right onto Copy Lane/Northern Perimeter from Dunningsbridge leads all the way back to Switch Island.
I think this proposed link to Thornton would have been a great addition. Not only would it have reduced the traffic having to head up Dunnigsbridge Road to get to Copy Lane or Northern Perimeter Road but also the new roundabout at Brickwall Lane/Northern Perimeter/Buckley Hill Lane/Lydiate lane would have improved the existing Junction, especially when wanting to turn onto Brickwall Lane from Northern Perimeter. When travelling during the rush hours I tend to use this road as it is less congested than Switch Island but the angle the junction is at just adds to the problem.
See all 8 comments about this junction »
With thanks to Mark Dowling, Chris McKenna and Paul for information on this page.
