============================= Post Merged into this Thread. ============================= I've always wondered about a certain section of the M53. It's the bend between the Clatterbridge (J4) and the Eastham (J5)junctions. There is a part that seems to lead off to a flyover, but looks like it was never completed.
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Construction on the M53 started in 1969. It was to be built in stages as part of a strategic route to North Wales for traffic from Merseyside. The route to North Wales was unresolved as there was even an option to run due west from south of Junction 4 and cross the River Dee on a barrage. In 1972 this first section from the Tunnel to junction 5 were it connected straight into the Vauxhall Motors road was opened. A junction was partially built to allow extension of the motorway further south west, around 1 mile west of junction 5. The unbuilt motorway would have provided a bypass of the A41 and would likely have terminated on the M56[3], though exactly where is unknown. The unfinished junction for this extension has now been demolished.
Interesting huh? I seem to remember the 'demolished' part of the North Wales route, from about 20 years ago. My dad remembers before the M53 was built at Ellesmere Port where it was an absolute nightmare to get home.
Forgot I had some pictures from about 1997 - here is the flyover bridge that has now been demolished and a picture when it was being built.
Last edited by diggingdeeper; 17th Sep 20088:11pm.
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I was under the impression that the moreton spare was originally designed to lead all the way to west kirby then cross the Dee to north wales and that junction 5 was meant to continue to Deeside industrial park.
You can still see where the trees are cleared and what looks like a guideline at the end of the line of trees through the field that on DD's first pic. Interesting stuff.
"I was under the impression that the moreton spare was originally designed to lead all the way to west kirby then cross the Dee to north wales and that junction 5 was meant to continue to Deeside industrial park. "
I was reading that in a book about the Wirral that I got out of Bebington library. Can't remember what it was called but it was from the 70s and it mentions this plan.
It also mentioned an absolutly bonkers plan from the 18th century to extend the Pool that are now the docks all the way accross the Wirral to Hoylake and to make a huge harbour by joining Hilbre to the coast with sea walls. I'm not on drugs but someone was 200 years ago!
Was that really there??? I can't remember there actually being a flyover over that curve? They should dig the rest up TBH. At least you won't have that lazy, fat policeman not doing his job properly waiting for speeders round that corner.
unction 2 is absolutely enormous, and has the kind of nice free-flowing links that some motorway-motorway connections like the M60-M62 junction at Simister, north of Manchester can only dream of. It has a grade-separated junction all of its own with the A551. It's all quite stunningly good, and well designed.
Then the spur almost immediately crashes into a tiny roundabout, with absolutely no provision made for any extension to the west.
These two facts have led to some serious speculation about an extension to the west and over the Dee Estuary. This seems somewhat unlikely, and no evidence has yet been found to support it.
Would be good to have a bridge across the Dee, it'd knock a couple of hours off journey time!
Then the spur almost immediately crashes into a tiny roundabout,
I have been a passenger in a car that literally did that!.
I remember in the early 80s before the Upton bypass was built. The part of the road that go's under the bridge was just a grassy area between the original 1 entrance and 1 exit ramp. Imagine the queus if it was still like that now!.
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