Mancunian Way

TheMancunian Wayis a two mile longgrade separatedelevatedmotorwayinManchester,England. It is officially made up of theA57(M) and A635(M)motorways, although the latter does not appear on road signs for practical reasons.It is also part of two other roads: theA57to the west, which runs east–west throughGreater Manchesterlinking theM602andM67motorways, and a short section of non-motorwayA635to the east. Part of this non-motorway section collapsed on 14 August 2015 due to asinkhole.

A57(M)
Mancunian Way
Looking towards the eastbound start of the motorway
Route information
Maintained byManchester City Council
Length	2.0 mi (3.2 km)
Existed	1967–present
History	Additional slip roads completed in 1992
Major junctions
southeast end	Downing Street/LondonRoad (A6)
northwest end	ChesterRoad (A56)
Location
Country	United Kingdom
Primary destinations	Manchester
Road network
Roads in the United Kingdom Motorways A and B road zones

A view of the Mancunian Way elevated motorway near theUniversity of Manchester.

Route

The road forms a major part of theManchester–Salford Inner Ring Roadand runs south of thecity centre.Running eastbound, it starts as a two-lane dual carriageway and passes underneath theA56.Following this, the road widens to three lanes. At the next junction which leads to theA5103,the road reduces to two lanes and becomes an elevated highway. This section runs atop link roads and tworoundaboutsbefore reaching the next junction with theA34.At this point the road passes through the centre of the campuses ofUMIST(now part of theUniversity of Manchester) andManchester Metropolitan University.It then runs for around3⁄4mile (1.2 km) before reaching its junction with theA6which it crosses on a bridge before dropping down to ground level. It then finishes on the A635 and continues eastbound, and also continues to be called the Mancunian Way.

History

Design

The Mancunian Way was conceived to form part of the South East Lancashire and North East Cheshire (SELNEC) Highway Plan of 1962, although similar proposals were developed from 1959.A parliamentary billto authorise the construction of the Mancunian Way was proposed and approved in 1961. During its design it was known as Link Road 17/7. The scheme lies over the geological West Manchester Fault.

It would be the first elevated main road to be built outsideLondon,and the UK's second aerial motorway after theHammersmith flyover.The road is 3,232 ft (985 m) long and has 28 spans of 105 ft (32 m), and two spans of 60 ft (18 m).

The spans are made out ofprecast concrete,with hollow box-unitspost-tensionedto form a spine beam. Each of the 105 ft spans is made out of 14 precast concrete hollow box-units 7 ft 3in long. Freyssinet (named afterEugène Freyssinet) multi-strand prestressing cables were threaded through ducts in the box sections. Testing of the design was carried on a 1/12th model at the Research Station of the Cement and Concrete Association at Wexham Springs inSouth Bucks.The design was made by the consulting engineersG Maunsell & Partners,who had designed the similar Hammersmith flyover in 1961. The company was known for prestressed concrete flyovers. The design received a Concrete Society award.

The designer of the bridges would go on to design theWestwaydual carriageway in London, which opened as the A40(M) in July 1970, losing its motorway status in 2000.

Construction

View west at the eastern terminus of the A57(M), from the north of the junction (with the A6 London Road), showing theMaths and Social Sciences Building(formerUMIST), and proximate to theMacdonaldManchester Hotel

The construction was carried out in two phases: the first stage involved the construction of a dual carriageway of 2,850 ft (870 m) to the east of theA6 roadin November 1963 and was opened to traffic as part of theA635 roadin November 1965.

The second stage was the construction, from December 1964, of a 0.6 mi (0.97 km) long elevated highway of a motorway standard which ran between the A6 andA56roads. The second stage was open to traffic as part of theA57 roadin March 1967. The previous day it was opened to pedestrians, who were allowed to walk the whole of the high-level route as a sight-seeing publicity exercise. Many people brought picnics which they ate in the centre of the carriageway.

At that time, the construction specifications had included cosmetic fairings to the tops of the support piers. These completely enclosed the roller bearings upon which the elevated roadway sits. However, the first time these bearings were serviced, the fairings were removed and never replaced. This leaves the poorer appearance seen today and also allows the ingress of dirt to the bearings.

Leonard Fairclough & Sonwere the contractors, and the prestressed concrete sections were made at its operations inAdlington,Lancashire.The contractor's site compound was in Loxford Street. Thepilingwas completed by Pigott Foundations ofOrmskirkwithauger(screw)boringwith reinforcement cages. The piling went 50 ft (15 m) deep through theboulder clayto the Bunter sandstone (Buntsandstein). The road on the structure and kerbing was built by Wilson and Wilkinson ofWorsleyin Salford.

Opening

The Mancunian Way was officially opened byPrime Minister,Harold Wilson,on 5 May 1967. In the 1970s, it was upgraded tomotorwaystatus as the A57(M) and the speed limit was raised to 50 mph (80 km/h).At the time of its opening theManchester Evening Newsreferred to it as the "highway in the sky".The scheme cost was £5.5million (£126million in today's figures).

Extension as the A635(M)

In 1992, the westbound junction was rebuilt to replace a temporaryflyover,whereby the A56 passed over aroundaboutwhere the A57(M) originally ended. At the same time, a new flyover was built at the eastern end, over the A6, but was legally designated as the A635(M) in 1995.

Oddities

Just before the junction with the A34 is an unfinishedslip road(stub) that ends 20 feet in the air, although development next to Mancuian Way has meant much of the stub was demolished in October 2018.

The last1⁄2mile (0.80 km) of the Mancunian Way in the east is part of theA635,the A57 heading south east from the same junction as the A6, though it states A57(M) on the signage as one enters westbound.Department for Transportdocumentation states differently,so officially the Mancunian Way consists of two motorways, the A57(M) and the A635(M).

Part of the easternmost non-motorway section of Mancunian Way collapsed into a 40 ft (12 m)sinkholeon 14 August 2015,after almost half a month's worth of rain fell in parts of Manchester in just six hours.The closure caused significant congestion on the remaining part of Mancunian Way and other nearby roads.It fully reopened on 15 June 2016 after 10 months of repair work.

Cultural references

• The scene in which Sam Tyler wakes up in 1973 ins1e1 of Life on Marstakes place in a planned construction site for the Mancunian Way, despite that it was already built by then. As he runs out of the site, a billboard is shown with the words "Coming Soon! Manchester's Highway in the Sky".
• The 2006Take ThatalbumBeautiful Worldincludes a track entitled "Mancunian Way", which is about the city ofManchesterand the local vicinity and notable events.The group was formed in Manchester and three of the five original members are from theGreater Manchesterarea.

Junctions

Note: motorway has no junction numbers

Ramp stuboff the Mancunian Way at the junction with theA34

A57(M) and A635(M) motorways
Eastbound exits	Junction	Westbound exits
Road continues as A635 toAshton-under-Lyne,MossleyandGreenfield		Manchester Piccadilly,Stockport,HydeA6 Sheffield(A57)
Manchester Piccadilly, Stockport, Hyde A6 Sheffield (A57)		Start of motorway
UMIST,Wilmslow,Cheadle,Cheadle Hulme,A34		No exit
No exit		Didsbury,Birmingham,Moss Side,Hulme,Manchester Airport,Chester,A5103
Didsbury, Birmingham, Moss Side, Hulme, Manchester Airport, Chester A5103		No exit
Start of motorway		Stretford,Sale,Castlefield,Manchester Central Convention ComplexA56
Stretford, Sale, Castlefield, Manchester Central A56		Road continues as A57 toSalfordand M602

See also

• List of motorways in the United Kingdom

Further reading

• "The Mancunian Way – Manchester's Prestressed Concrete Elevated Roadway".Concrete Quarterly(72) January–March 1967. (Detailed construction information).

External links

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