M60 junction 18 Simister Island Interchange

Proposals to create extra capacity at junction 18 to reduce congestion and support economic growth.

Start date 2024

End date 2026

Cost £66 million - £338 million

Latest updates

17 August 2020

Consultation now closed

Our public consultation has now closed. Thank you to everybody who took the time to provide us with your feedback on our scheme and the options we presented. We’ll now take time to analyse and consider the feedback we received. You can read our Report on Public Consultation which summaries the responses we received between June and August 2020.

We will then make a ‘preferred route announcement’ following the consultation report. This is where we confirm which option we will take forward to improve Simister Island Interchange. We will use your feedback to help us make this decision.

Although our consultation has now closed, we’d still like to hear from you. If you have any questions or would like more information about the project or what happens next, you can contact us on the following details:

Email: M60J18SimisterIslandInterchange@highwaysengland.co.uk
Telephone: 0300 123 5000 (Customer Contact Centre)
Write to: M60 J18 Simister Island Interchange Project Team, Highways England, 3 Piccadilly Place, Manchester M1 3BN

We may not post any updates about this scheme for some time while we analyse the responses, but we will be carrying out more engagement with communities and stakeholders when we reach our preferred route announcement. We hope to be able to hold face to face events for this, depending on social distancing restrictions at the time. You can subscribe to be alerted by email when we update this webpage in the future.

This short video gives more information about how we develop major road projects and the process we expect to follow to obtain planning permission to build the scheme.

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Project information

In March 2020, the Government’s second Road Investment Strategy included a commitment for Highways England to improve Simister Island Interchange between the M62, M60 and M66.

Simister Island Interchange is one of the busiest motorway junctions in the north-west used by around 90,000 vehicles each day. The junction struggles with such high volumes of traffic above what it was designed for, and as a result suffers from congestion and poor journey time reliability.

The project will improve junction 18 of the M60 and facilitate smoother flows of traffic along the connecting motorways, contributing to more reliable and safer journeys into and around Greater Manchester.

The main aims of the scheme are:

Improve the journey experience for users of this section of network by:

reducing peak congestion and faster average speeds
reducing journey times
delivering more reliable journey times

Provide an option which is safe for all road users
Minimise the impact of the project on the surrounding environment including within Noise Important Areas and Air Quality Management Areas
Facilitate future economic growth across the Greater Manchester area and support delivery of proposed development sites close to the M60 and M66

We’ve carried out an environmental impact assessment on the two options we are presenting for consultation, and we are producing an Environmental Assessment Report for the scheme which will be published when complete.

The assessment so far indicates that the options are not expected to have significant impacts on the environment. We are however aware that junction 18 lies within both an Air Quality Management Area and a Noise Important Area. This means that air quality and noise have already been identified as issues in this area. We’re also aware of several other factors to consider, including an area of special landscape value, existing water quality issues, a peatland, and protected species.

We’re still at an early stage in the scheme’s development, and as with any large construction scheme, there is always the potential to make existing issues worse. Measures to reduce negative impacts, such as visual screening and noise barriers, will be identified where possible and open to consultation during future stages of the scheme.

We will undertake more detailed surveys and assessments based on statutory requirements and national guidance to inform the environmental assessment as the scheme progresses.