The M66, also known as the Bury Easterly Bypass, is a

motorway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway, and expressway. Other similar terms ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

and

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Derbyshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Cheshire to the south, and Merseyside to the west. Its largest settlement is the city of Manchester. ...

, England. It is long and provides part of the route between the M62 and M60 motorways and the M65, with the rest being provided by the A56. Historically the motorway used to continue southward around the east side of Manchester, but in 1998 this section was renumbered and became part of the M60 Manchester orbital motorway.

Route

The M66 starts at the Simister Island, a junction with the M60 and M62, and heads north as a continuation of the M60 as a three-lane dual carriageway. It passes the eastern edge of Whitefield, through junction 3, goes underneath the East Lancashire Railway and enters the

suburbs A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...

of Bury. It reduces to two lanes at junction 2 and then climbs onto an elevated section, passing through a post war housing estate.CBRD Motorway Database – M66
/ref> At the end of the elevated road, a third climbing lane is added to the

summit A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. The topographic terms acme, apex, peak (mountain peak), and zenith are synonymous. The term (mountain top) is generally used only for ...

of the hill. The road then runs to the east of Ramsbottom and the East Lancashire Railway and ends near Edenfield, where the road continues as the A56 dual carriageway.

History

M66 motorway in 1998 in North West England map

In 1949 a report, the Road Plan for Lancashire, proposed the construction of ''Route 9'' which would link north east Manchester with

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2021 population of 78,266. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River B ...

and

Blackburn Blackburn () is an industrial town and the administrative centre of the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The town is north of the West Pennine Moors on the southern edge of the River Ribble, Ribble Valley, east of Preston ...

via ''Route 8''. Originally planned to be an all purpose road. the route was redesignated as a motorway prior to construction. The first section (the so-called ''Middleton Link'') was opened in 1971. On the Department for Transport's 2002 Roads List this link is listed as the M68. Construction then began on the southern section of the Bury bypass (junctions 4 to 3) in February 1973 with this opening in August 1975. Immediately after construction began on the northern section (junctions 3 to terminus) with this opening in 1978.The Motorway Archive – M66 Dates
The motorway was planned to run down to Stockport where it would meet the M63 and the proposed A6(M) motorway.The Motorway Archive – M66 (now M60) Portwood to Denton
The first part of this built was the section from the M67 to the M63 (now junctions 24 to 27 of the M60) with construction beginning in 1986 and it opening to traffic in 1989.The Motorway Archive – M66 (now M60) Portwood to Denton Dates
The final section of the motorway was to be between the M67 and the Middleton Link. Construction began on this in 1995. In 1998 it was decided to rename various sections of motorway (parts of the M62 and M66 and the whole of the M63) around Manchester to the M60 to form the "Manchester Outer Ring Road". All sections of the M66 south of the M62 were therefore redesignated as the M60. This final section subsequently opened in 2000. North of the M66, the road was built as the A56, an all purpose A road which connects with the M65 at junction 8.

Legislation

Each

in England requires that a statutory instrument be published, detailing the route of the road, before it can be built. The dates given on these statutory instruments relate to when the document was published, and not when the road was built. Provided below is an incomplete list of statutory instruments relating to the route of the M66. * ( SI 1973/1142) * ( SI 1996/2158) * ( SI 1996/2159)

Junctions

{, class="plainrowheaders wikitable" , - !scope=col, County !scope=col, Location !scope=col, mi !scope=col, km !scope=col, Junction !scope=col, Destinations !scope=col, Notes , - ,

, Edenfield , 0 , 0 , bgcolor="ddffdd" , — , bgcolor="ddffdd" , - Haslingden , bgcolor="ddffdd" , Road continues from A56 , - , rowspan="4",

, — , 2.2 , 3.6 , bgcolor="ffdddd" , 1 , bgcolor="ffdddd" , - Edenfield, Bury , bgcolor="ffdddd" , No Southbound exit or Northbound entrance , - , rowspan="2", Bury , 5.5 , 8.8 , 2 , - Bury, Heywood,

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a town in Greater Manchester, England, and the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale. In the United Kingdom 2021 Census, 2021 Census, the town had a population of 111,261, compared to 223,773 for the wid ...

, , - , 6.4 , 10.2 , 3 , Whitefield, Heywood , , - , — , 8.4 , 13.6 , 4 , - Eccles,

Stockport Stockport is a town in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt, Rivers Goyt and River Tame, Greater Manchester, Tame merge to create the River Mersey he ...

, Ashton under Lyne
-

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

, Hull , , - *Ceremonial Counties ;Coordinate list

References

External links