Motorway Database
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Factfile - Images - Timeline - Exit List
The M66 is one of those rarest of things: a road that was built bigger than it was originally envisaged instead of smaller. The intention for Manchester's northern radial road was for a dual-carriageway upgrade of the A56 all the way to Accrington - what actually happened was the southern section was upgraded in the final planning stage instead of downgraded, which is usually the case. The result is a short motorway, the M66.
One downside of this is that the route was planned as the A56 for decades before it was built. There was plenty of room for the expanded plan, except at one place in the eastern suburbs of Bury where a corridor had been left through a 1950s housing development, probably with the intention of an at-grade dual carriageway with semi-detached houses fronting it. Today the housing estate is bisected by an ugly elevated motorway, and the M66 suffers with a narrow hard shoulder. It climbs a steep hill at this point, but the crawler lane can only start two thirds of the way up once the elevated section has ended.
At one point the M66 was to form the eastern side of Manchester's ring road once it hit the city. It continued for a mile south of the M62, vanished, then reappeared right down at Stockport, with the intention that the two ends would be connected. Both parts had junction numbers leaving room for the new section. When it was finally completed in 2000, its thunder was stolen. Instead of being connected up and finished, the M66 was actually cropped right back to the M62 - the whole now-completed ring road was called the M60. If it wasn't for the A56 plans being upgraded the M66 wouldn't exist at all today.
Factfile
| Start | Ramsbottom (A56) |
| Finish | Whitefield (M60) |
| Passes | Bury |
| Length | 8 miles |
| Terminates | None |
| Spurs | None |
| Meets | M62 |
Images
Views of the M66 from on and off the road. If you have a photo to contribute, contact me.
There are currently no images in this section.
Construction Timeline
When the various parts of the M66 were built, listed in chronological order.
| Open | Jct | Section |
|---|---|---|
| 1975 | J3-M60 | Bury Eastern Bypass (south) |
| 1978 | J0-3 | Bury Eastern Bypass (north) |
Exit List
All the junctions and destinations along the route.
| Junction | Northbound | Southbound | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blackburn Burnley Rawtenstall A56     |
A680 |
NORTH A56  |
A680 A56 |
N/A   |
||||||
2 miles, 2 lanes  |
||||||||||
| 1 | Ramsbottom Bury (N) A56  |
A56 |  |
A56 | ||||||
| 3 miles, 2 lanes |
 5 miles, 2 lanes |
|||||||||
| 2 | Bury Heywood A58  |
A58 |   |
A58 | Heywood Bury A58  |
|||||
| 1 mile, 3 lanes |
1 mile, 3 lanes |
|||||||||
| 3 | Radcliffe Heywood |
 |
Radcliffe Whitefield |
|||||||
| 2 miles, 3 lanes |
2 miles, 3 lanes |
|||||||||
| (M60 J18) | N/A |
M60 (M62) |
 M60 SOUTH |
M62 |
Rochdale Leeds M62  |
|||||
| Ring Road (E) Oldham Stockport M60 (M67 ) |
||||||||||
| Ring Road (N) Manchester &  Salford M60 (M62 ) |
