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Let's get this out of the way first: I don't like the M60. It barged in and just took over all the motorways around Manchester. It also killed the M63 and stole a section of
M62 which now lies broken in two parts. Its 'new' section on the east side of Manchester was planned in the early 1990s as the M66, and all the legal orders for it call it M66 too. What a sham! (That's right, I am not a fan of this malicious Johnny-come-lately). The plan was, of course, to give the motorways around Manchester a single, coherent number when the gap on the east side was closed, and admittedly M60 makes more sense than M63, M66 and M62.
Because of all that nasty business, the M60 actually contains the very first bit of motorway construction. Before work started on the M6 Preston Bypass, Lancashire County Council started work piling up the embankments for the Barton High Level Bridge (then for the M62). It was able to get the material for free, so the embankments were built just in case. In 2000, the section between junctions 19 and 24 opened (originally meant to be M66), which was the last section of motorway to open that was funded with public money. When work was finished there, no new motorways were under construction in Britain for the first time since 1956 when the Preston Bypass work began. The M60 took a total of 46 years to build.
Oh, and the M60 is Britain's only full-circle motorway, so well done there.
Factfile
| Start | Stockport (M60) |
| Finish | Stockport (M60) |
| Passes | Manchester, Manchester  , Trafford Park, Bolton, Oldham, Ashton-under-Lyne |
| Length | 36 miles |
| Terminates | M56, M61, M66, M67, M602 |
| Spurs | None (since May 2006; previously the A6144(M) was a spur) |
| Meets | M62 |
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With thanks to John Carter, Chris McKenna, NJ, Matt Janke, Simon Hollett and Peter Edwardson for information in this section.
