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Im not sure if this is the right forum for this thread, but I am posting it here anyway!

I was recently chatting to my uncle (who was a plod for 27 years including a traffic sergant for 12 years in the Merseyside bacon), and we got chatting about the M53 motorway. He was telling me all about the history of it and how it never ended up the way it was originally panned.

He was also telling me about the "relics" you can still see along the original planned route of it.

Anyway, needless to say, this was all a bit confusing trying to picture it all at the time although I got the gist of what he meant.

So I decided to have a look on the internet for information and came across a website called the CBRD Motorway Database.

One the website I found two very interesting web pages:

- Overview of the M53 Motorway

- The original plans and story of what actually happened

Ive found it all very interesting, indeed me and Pomp were discussing it for quite a while before. It is mad to see the original planned route that it should have taken and how it actually ended up.

I agree with the CBRD, it did end up a complete bodge job, something like you see Del Boy doing on OFAH lol! But fortunatly, it seems to have actually worked out well, as it does not tend to struggle.

Its amazing to think that from Junction 5 onwards (Eastham/A41 Junction) its wasnt "really" a motorway, and originally it was given the name M531 because they tried to convert it into a motorway.

It has certainly made me look at the M53 a bit differently lol!

What are your opinions or comments? Anyone on here old enough to remember much about it at the time it was actually getting built?

I always wondered why the older generation call it the "contaversial" M53. Well now we know why!

smile
I had a feeling u would post this up after the lecture u gave me on msn.

if you cant be bothered reading this jst click on the links he provided and look at the pictures.
Thats what made me take interest.
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Originally posted by MattyC:
Ive found it all very interesting, indeed me and Pomp were discussing it for quite a while before.
I can't say I'm that much bothered about what was planned or how it turned oot. And I can't say much more than sadness when you were discussing it for quite a while. Just not my cuppa tea I'm afraid. Good to see it's kept you entertained though smile
Far too much time on my hands is the words you are looking for laugh
Interesting stuff.
I love the 53, the high speed section past juction 4 northbound is great (where its 3 or 4 lanes wide and downhill)

TBH i think the junction 2A bit is a ******* rubbish idea,yea its convinient but a narrow B road would have done fine,its quiet as fook that part of the Mway
Matty, i am sure webby would know all of the facts in detail as he was a teenager in 1970 when all of this happened think
Posted By: Anonymous Re: The M53 (+M531) - The History Of Wirrals Motorway - 30th Jul 2007 1:34pm
I always heard that the council designed the original Motorway mostly above ground. Billy Leverhulme wasn't too happy with being able to see the motorway from his land so he got his engineers to redesign it (at reduced cost from original plan, possibly due to Billy giving some land away cheaply) so that it was not visble from his land, hence the long sections of motorway that are below ground level or have big embankments.

Wirralwiki
Interesting information there matey! I wonder if anyone has any photos of the old flyover that wasnt to be that went over the Northbound carriageway from Junction 5 that was removed in the early 2000's?

I saw an M531 sign about a month back, can't remember quite which Junction it was on, but I didnt have me camera with me at the time to get a photograph.

smile
I was always fascinated by Motorways as a child and loved the info on CBRD - I'm in aggreement with the author of those pages too in the way that some of the junction especially 2 and 3 seem far too big for the volumes of traffic that they get.....
Posted By: Brocks M53/m56 history - 8th Feb 2008 12:28pm
I came across this site today whilst looking for Bidston Airfield.

http://www.iht.org/motorway/page1.htm

Found some nice articles on the M53 and M56. I vagely remember the 56 extension.(http://www.iht.org/motorway/m56haplea.htm)

M53:

http://www.iht.org/motorway/m53midwir.htm

"In the 1960's, Vauxhall Motors decided to build a car factory at Hooton, Ellesmere Port, on the site of a disused airfield. However, the existing road access was totally inadequate.

A new road network was required within the immediate area, to serve the development. Not only was it essential for the supply of raw materials, and as a reasonable means of access for employees, but it was required also for the delivery of finished vehicles to markets in all parts of the country and abroad.

The site was close to Ellesmere Port itself, at the western end of the Manchester Ship Canal, and near to the Docks at Birkenhead and Liverpool.

In particular, access was needed to the A41, the major road between Chester and Birkenhead.

In view of the employment which the factory would bring to the area, the Cheshire County Council was keen to assist in the development. Following negotiations with the Company it was agreed that a new dual two-lane carriageway road would be constructed from a junction with the A41 at Hooton, and a junction with the A5032 immediately north of Ellesmere Port, both of which would be grade separated. The latter would link directly into the site of the new factory and its cost would be met by the Company.

Both the factory and the 2½ mile long road, known initially as the 'Hooton Industrial Road', were built concurrently by the same Contractor.

Although primarily serving the needs of the factory when completed in 1968, it soon became apparent that there was an expanding need for even better facilities. It was decided, therefore, to extend the road southwards, through Ellesmere Port for a further 2½ miles, as far as the A5117 and to provide grade separated junctions. On completion of this section, in the summer of 1975, and upgrading to a dual two-lane carriageway standard, the whole length was designated as the M531, the first 'county motorway' in Cheshire.

Meanwhile, in 1965, G Maunsell and Partners, the firm of Consulting Engineers, was appointed by the Ministry of Transport to carry out a location study for a new route serving the Wirral Peninsula generally. It was to commence from the southern end of the second Mersey Tunnel (Wallasey-Liverpool), at Bidston, and terminate in the Hooton-Sutton area."

...

"The design of the Woodchurch Interchange was unusual and, at that time, the only one of its type in the country. It is, in effect, a three-level interchange fitted into a two-level site, by having an elongated roundabout with rising gradients. Features controlling the design were the limited headroom under, and in close proximity to, a railway; the Fender River flood water levels; a nearby block of flats; and the limited availability of land due to new development."
Posted By: MerseyMan Re: M53/m56 history - 8th Feb 2008 1:07pm
Remember the monstrosity in B-head town years ago? The flyovers that landed slap bang in the middle of conway street with the bingo hall to the side of it plenty o' concrete there.
Posted By: jonno40 Re: M53/m56 history - 8th Feb 2008 1:35pm
IF you google the eastham exit ,look at the the sliproads and the carriage way there is a piece of road that goes nowhere.it was meant to be a branch off that was to go to the welsh road but was never completed ,there is a history of motorways site out there which will explain more but cant remember the name at the mo :>
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=eastham+,wirral&ie=UTF8&ll=53.303522,-2.971662&spn=0.018336,0.057077&t=h&z=15&iwloc=addr&om=0

You can just see the direction the road would of taken and where the trees have been cleared
Posted By: BMW Joe Re: M53/m56 history - 8th Feb 2008 6:58pm
The M53 (+M531) - The History Of Wirrals Motorway wink
Posted By: Cali_16v Re: M53/m56 history - 8th Feb 2008 7:55pm
Originally Posted by jonno39
IF you google the eastham exit ,look at the the sliproads and the carriage way there is a piece of road that goes nowhere.it was meant to be a branch off that was to go to the welsh road but was never completed ,there is a history of motorways site out there which will explain more but cant remember the name at the mo :>
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=eastham+,wirral&ie=UTF8&ll=53.303522,-2.971662&spn=0.018336,0.057077&t=h&z=15&iwloc=addr&om=0

You can just see the direction the road would of taken and where the trees have been cleared


Always wondered why the road was built like that.

cheers for that.
lol see you already had that covered joe doh
Posted By: AR_One Re: The M53 (+M531) - The History Of Wirrals Motor - 11th Feb 2008 12:37pm
"You can just see the direction the road would of taken and where the trees have been cleared"

I reckon that photo must be quite old - the trees have grown back now - I think that the gap in them is where the bridge was demolished about 2001/2?
Posted By: DavidB M53 - 7th Mar 2008 9:03pm
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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.

http://www.iht.org/motorway/m53midwir.htm
there was a rumour that it was goin to be finished an would take u to the hooton junction of the a41 if the funding was there.
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.


Description: M53 road to nowhere
Attached picture M53bridgesmall.jpg

Description: Being built
Attached picture M53building1.jpg
Posted By: jonah Re: The M53 (+M531) - The History Of Wirrals Motor - 17th Sep 2008 8:24pm
where was thar to go to/from?
Posted By: Mark Re: The M53 (+M531) - The History Of Wirrals Motor - 17th Sep 2008 10:29pm
Wooh

Wicked, never seen that before.

What a waste of money then?

( Thanks for Sharing digging deeper )
Posted By: Waddi Re: The M53 (+M531) - The History Of Wirrals Motor - 17th Sep 2008 10:38pm
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.
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=53.302262,-2.969227&spn=0.003167,0.009656&t=k&z=17&layer=c

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!
[Linked Image]

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.
wow - that is amazing - always wondered why the road suddenly went down to 2 lanes and there was tarmac leading nowhere.
Thanks Matt
Originally Posted by Station
At least you won't have that lazy, fat policeman not doing his job properly waiting for speeders round that corner.

lol...its cheshire police on the M53 now..not us!..call them what you want!
Another interesting set of factoids on the M53:

http://pathetic.org.uk/current/m53/

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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.


[Linked Image]

Would be good to have a bridge across the Dee, it'd knock a couple of hours off journey time!
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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!.
Always had thoughts that from the little roundabout they were going to take the dual carraigeway on and go thru the fields towards Irby by Horrocks wood between Irby and Pensby and down between Heswall and Thurstaston to a Dee Bridge the route is mostly fields.
Perhaps thats where that unused exit on Greasby roundabout was supposed to head?.
Think that was going to be the Sainsbury's exit as at one time I think they were after taking the whole area until people kicked up and wanted it as park or recreational area as they now have it.
There is an excellent book "The Motorway Achievement", written by an engineer, covers all the motorway histories in the NW. I thought it would be really dull, but it was actually very interesting, I guess because you are probably familiar with most of the locations, and the locations are almost still there.
The guy that runs this site is very knowledgable
http://www.cbrd.co.uk/motorway/
I think the link is already up at the beginning of this thread .
OMG
I know its old but I was looking at this today from the link billy gave here cbrd.co.uk
After much googling about looking for a photo of the bridge at junction 5 before demolition, I am to be led back here laugh

It really is a small world
[Linked Image]

Posted By: bigpete Re: M53/m56 history - 24th Aug 2014 3:42pm
the flyovers in Birkenhead - showed the power of the road lobby - from post-war times onwards.

The grandiose ideas - put a junction in at Moreton spur in case there 'might be' a Dee Crossing bridge, with no junction for the much bigger Upton Road settlements - the M53 sweeping down to west of Chester - when the M56 was already doing that...etc.

Money and resources seemed to have been thrown willy-nilly at roads in this period...
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