M6 Junction 10 roadworks to cause 'minimum disruption', vow bosses

Drivers will not be stuck in long queues at Junction 10 of the M6, say highways bosses, as its £78 million overhaul soon gets under way.

West Midlands Mayor Andy Street with Walsall Council deputy leader Adrian Andrew, Eddie Hughes MP and representatives from Highways England cut the first sod on the project

Work is about to get under way on the huge two-year scheme to cut congestion at the notorious bottleneck between Wolverhampton and Walsall.

It came after seemingly endless delays completing roadworks at the Oldbury viaduct on the M5 and another project overrunning by a year on the M5 near Worcester.

Highways England officials today said they were confident things will be different this time.

Junction 10 of the M6 will be overhauled in a project over the next two years

The scheme at Junction 10 will involve building two huge bridges, twice the size of the ones that currently run over the motorway.

But, crucially, traffic will continue to run over the existing bridges until their replacements are built.

Site clearance and ground work will start imminently ahead of construction on the bridges which begins in July.

Project manager David Reed said motorists could expect some disruption, but nothing like what has been seen on the M5 for the last three years.

He said: "It's certainly not an easy task but we've got an experienced contractor on board, John Sisk, who have done work for Highways England in the past, successfully opening schemes on time.

Mayor Andy Street with Highways England project manager David Reed, who says he is confident disruption will be kept to a minimum

"It's not an easy undertaking but our intention is to keep the traffic rolling throughout the junction.

"As we're building the new one the old junction will still keep flowing.

"During the day the local network will still be the same. There may be cones or some narrowed lanes but the same lane numbers will be there and on the M6 itself we will be taking the inside lane within the junction but retaining three of the lanes on the M6.

"We're reasonably confident the disruption will be a minimum."

Junction 10 is one of the busiest sections of motorway in the country

He added: "We aim to have it finished by spring 2022. I understand on the M5 they had difficulty with ground conditions and we're doing a lot of work ahead of the main bridge building to shore up the ground, a lot of grouting work and investigations so we're doing what we can to not encounter those problems."

West Midlands Mayor Andy Street, who joined the sod-cutting ceremony, said: "I know how bad it can be, but it's also the gateway to Walsall and the gateway to Wolverhampton so it's an absolutely critical junction in the West Midlands.

"People are using this all day, every day for their commuting so the work that's gone in, pre-works planning with Walsall Council on dealing with the disruption and then managing it really well through the works will be very important."