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M6 release gates for Carlisle and Penrith

Government Communications (NDS)

12 January 2011

The gates are designed to help turn drivers around onto the opposite carriageway when they are blocked by serious incidents ahead and then stuck in 'trapped traffic'.EnterpriseMouchel, the Highways Agency's service provider for Cumbria and North Lancashire, is supervising the installation of two new gates between Junctions 41 and 42 of the M6 south of Carlisle and a further gate south of Penrith between Junctions 39 and 40.The £170,000 scheme is due to begin on Monday, February 7, and be completed by the end of the month.Off-peak lane two and three closures on the northbound carriageway and lane three on the southbound - between 8pm and 6am each night - will be used to ensure the gates can be installed safely. A 50mph speed limit will be in place along the short sections of traffic management. The work is not expected to cause any delays.The special, 16 metre, emergency crossover gates are designed to allow quick and easy access between carriageways otherwise protected by the continuous central reservation barrier.Major incidents can cause lengthy closures of a carriageway - sometimes for many hours - and the gates can be used to free drivers stuck behind.At previous major incidents the Highways Agency has taken a decision to cut the central barrier but that can be time-consuming and also relies on there being some kind of hard standing across the central reservation to prevent larger vehicles from sinking and getting stuck. When traffic is turned around in such incidents the lanes being used are coned off from the rest of the carriageway to allow turning traffic to merge safely further along with the vehicles already on the open carriageway.The gates can also be used on both sides of an incident when there is a total carriageway closure in both directions.The work has been ordered in Cumbria and north Lancashire because of the distances between junctions. In areas where junctions are closer together Highways Agency Traffic Officers, often working with the local police, can usually effect 'rearward relief' by turning traffic on the closed carriageway and allowing them to escape at the nearest junction behind them.A total of ten gates have already been installed along the M6 between Junctions 45 at the Scottish border and Junction 32 at Broughton in Lancashire. The three new M6 gates are in addition to those between Junctions 1 and 3 of the M55 and along the A66 west and east of the M6 near Penrith and Appleby respectively.Bob Baldwin, Highways Agency Area Performance Manager for Cumbria and north Lancashire, said, "We are always looking at ways in which we can minimise the impact of major incidents on drivers. Obviously, we work hard to advise drivers and manage traffic when there has been a major incident so drivers can delay their journeys or take an alternative route."However, some drivers are unlucky enough to get caught behind incidents just after they have happened and that causes a whole range of challenges for us in terms of traffic management and driver and passenger welfare. These new gates will just give us one more weapon in our battle against congestion and driver delays."END