M62 Motorway - Route

Route

In addition to passing Warrington, Manchester, Huddersfield, Halifax, Bradford, Leeds and Wakefield, the towns of Huyton, St Helens, Widnes, Bury, Rochdale, Dewsbury, Pontefract, Selby and Goole are designated as primary destinations along the road. The road is a terminus to two motorways: the M57 motorway near Prescot and the M18 motorway near Rawcliffe; and has four spur routes: the M602 motorway, which serves Manchester, the A627(M) motorway, which serves Oldham and Rochdale, the M606 motorway, which serves Bradford, and the M621 motorway, which serves Leeds. Despite Hull being listed as a primary destination, the motorway downgrades near North Cave, 16 miles (26 km) west.

The motorway starts on Queen's Drive, on Liverpool's middle ring road. From there it runs eastward to Liverpool's outer ring road, the M57. The route has four exits for Warrington: junction 7, an interchange with the A57 road, junction 8, which also houses IKEA, Junction 9, which interchanges with the A49 road, originally intended to be a motorway itself, and junction 11. Between these is junction 10, which is a cloverstack interchange with the M6 motorway. The M62 then crosses Chat Moss before interchanging with the M60 motorway. Due to original plans being to extend the section of the motorway into Manchester, motorists must turn off to stay on (TOTSO) the route into Yorkshire.

In Greater Manchester, the motorway shares seven junctions, 12 to 18, with the M60 motorway. Junction 13, which is signposted for Swinton, is situated only 1⁄₂ miles (0.80 km) from junction 12, leaving exiting motorists the hazard of crossing the still-merging M62 traffic. After this, there is Worsley Braided Interchange, which, in addition to serving junctions 14 and 15, also serves junctions 1 to 3 of the M61 motorway, which terminates to Preston.

Near junction 22, the motorway gains a lane to climb Windy Hill, before crossing the border into Yorkshire and interchanging with the rural A672 road, reaching the highest point of any motorway in England 1,221 feet (372 m). There is then a 7-mile (11 km) travel through the Pennines to the next junction, passing Scammonden Water and Stott Hall Farm. The next junction is 23, which is accessible only for westbound traffic. After this, the road dips through a valley to junction 24 and drops slowly before interchanging with the A644 road at junction 25. Between junctions 22 and 25, the road is used as a border between the metropolitan boroughs of Calderdale and Kirklees.

At junction 26, Chain Bar, the motorway interchanges with several roads: the M606 motorway, a spur into Bradford, the A58 road, which runs between Prescot and Wetherby, and the A638 road, which runs to Doncaster, then follows the old route of the A1 through Bawtry and Retford, to Markham Moor where it rejoins the A1. The next junction also serves a spur route: the M621 motorway, before bypassing Leeds to the south to the interchange with the M1 motorway, Lofthouse Interchange, at junction 29. East of Leeds, the motorway serves Wakefield at junction 30 and crosses by the River Calder. At junction 32a, the road is crossed by the A1(M) motorway, which also runs parallel to it for a short distance. The next junction serves the A162 road, previously the A1, and Ferrybridge service station. After Ferrybridge, the motorway becomes relatively flat, except for a 1-mile (1.6 km) bridge that crosses the River Ouse. For approximately 10 miles (16 km) after this, the road runs towards Hull, serving Howden and North Cave, before downgrading to the A63 road.