Council wins £3m bid for Junction 8 improvement work

WARRINGTON Borough Council has won a £3 million funding bid for work to improve Junction 8 of the M62.
The  scheme, which will be delivered by the council with additional funding from Warrington Local Enterprise Partnership and contributions from developers, will improve access from the motorway to the Omega site.
Highways England has awarded the £3 million boost to the £12 million road improvement scheme from the government’s new Growth and Housing Fund. The fund is a national Highways England initiative to support improvements to the strategic road network which will help create thousands of jobs and homes in the region.
Cllr Hans Mundry, the council’s lead member for highways, said: “We are absolutely delighted to have secured this funding from Highways England for these vital Junction 8 improvements.
“As well as providing improvements for existing journeys the scheme will provide much needed capacity to help support the further development in the area, such as on the Omega development site and Lingley Mere.”
The scheme will:
• Reduce existing levels of congestion on local and strategic highway routes and support residents and existing businesses using these routes.
• Deliver additional junction capacity to support future growth in jobs and houses at Omega, Lingley Mere, Gemini and the wider North West Warrington area
• Improve conditions for other transport users, such as public transport services, pedestrians and cyclists
• Improve road safety on the M62 due to reduced risk of slip road queuing
extending back onto the motorway.
The scheme forms part of the wider West Warrington package of transport
improvements and supports the Local Authority and Local Enterprise Partnership’s plans for the creation of more than 1,400 homes and over 10,000 new jobs in West Warrington which are served directly by M62 Junction 8.