M53 renewal works to take place

A £2.8 million Highways Agency project to repair junction 2 of the M53, removing weight restrictions and reinstating lanes at the junction in Merseryside will get underway next month.

Work at junction 2 of the M53 at Moreton, west of Birkenhead, will start on 5 February and is expected to take up to four months to complete.

Highways Agency project sponsor Louise Baxendale said: “We are delivering on a promise we made to local people to resolve the long-running issue and re-open the junction to all traffic and restore two lanes and the hard shoulder to the slip roads.”

The work includes renewing two new bridges which carry the junction slip roads over the main motorway carriageway.

Councillor Stuart Whittingham, Wirral Council cabinet member for highways and transportation, said: “We have been working with the Highways Agency to ensure that disruption to people travelling in and through the borough is kept to a minimum while these works take place. However, some inconvenience is inevitable which is why we’re urging motorists to heed the advice and information which is being issued and be patient while they are asked to follow the marked diversion routes.”

The existing slip road bridges have weakened with age and in August 2011 a maximum weight limit of 7.5 tonnes was introduced and the link road reduce to a single lane. The bridges must be strengthened to re-open the link road with to its full capacity of two running lanes and a hard shoulder.

Details of the work include the south slip road bridge having its centre bridge deck span completely removed, the side span half joints strengthened, and a new centre span installed. The east slip road bridge will have its half joints at either end of the centre span demolished and strengthened in situ.