M57 motorway
Road of the United Kingdom
Length	14 miles (22.5 km)
Direction	Southeast - Northwest
Start	Huyton
Primary destinations	Liverpool
End	Netherton Switch Island
Construction dates	1972 - 1974
Motorways joined	M62 motorway M58 motorway

View of the M57 northwards from the bridge on Knowsley Lane. On the left can be seen the three tower blocks of Stockbridge Village.

The M57 motorway, also known as the Liverpool Outer Ring Road, is a road in England. Designed as a bypass road for Liverpool, it is 14 miles^[1] (22.5 km) long and links various towns east of the city, as well as the M62 and M58 motorways.

[edit] Route

Starting at the Tarbock Interchange in Tarbock, at the end of the A5300, the motorway heads north to the east of Huyton and west of Prescot and crosses the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. It then runs across the north east of Huyton before running west of Knowsley Village. After meeting the A580 at a split junction (numbered 4 & 5), it continues north west between Fazakerley and Kirkby, passes under the Kirkby and Ormskirk branches of the Merseyrail Northern Line before ending on Switch Island near Aintree. The motorway provides one of the main access routes to Aintree Racecourse.

[edit] History

The M57 was planned to be a complete bypass of Liverpool, meeting each of the main roads out of the city^[2]. As is normal in the United Kingdom, the M57 was to be built in stages. The first two opened were^[3]:

• Junctions 1 to 4 were opened in 1974 as phase 2.
• Junctions 4 to 7 were opened in 1972 as phase 1.

Phase 1 was proceeded with more rapidly as there had been industrial growth in the area, and it was considered important to improve traffic connections as soon as possible^[1]. The original plans for the route anticipated an extension south to the A562^[1].

At Switch Island, the junction was constructed to allow an extension of the M57 towards the A565 near Thornton and the end of the M58 has provision for slip roads to that extension to be constructed^[4]. Contemporary maps also showed a proposed southern extension, eventually constructed in the 1990s as the A5300^[5]. In 2008 plans have now been granted to extend the M57 from "Switch Island" to Thornton via a single track link road.

At the southern end of the M57 where it meets the M62 (Tarbock Island) and also the A5300 southern extension, a £38 million improvement scheme to create a free-flow link with the M62 eastbound was completed on November 14, 2008. At the same junction a free-flow link from the M62 Westbound to the M57 northbound was completed on December 12.

[edit] Junctions

[edit] See also

• List of motorways in the United Kingdom

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• CBRD
  • Motorway Database - M57
  • Bad Junctions - M57/M58/A59 [Switch Island)
• Pathetic Motorways - M57
• The Motorway Archive - M57

v • d • e   Motorways in the United Kingdom England, Scotland and Wales M1 · M2 · M3 · M4 · M5 · M6 · M6 Toll · M8 · M9 · M11 · M18 · M20 · M23 · M25 · M26 · M27 · M32 · M40 · M42 · M45 · M48 · M49 M50 · M53 · M54 · M55 · M56 · M57 · M58 · M60 · M61 · M62 · M65 · M66 · M67 · M69 · M73 · M74 · M77 · M80 · M90 M180 · M181 · M271 · M275 · M602 · M606 · M621 · M876 · M898 A1(M) · A3(M) · A38(M) · A48(M) · A57(M) · A58(M) · A64(M) · A66(M) · A74(M) · A167(M) · A194(M) A308(M) · A329(M) · A404(M) · A601(M) · A627(M) · A823(M) Northern Ireland M1 · M2 · M3 · M5 · M12 · M22 · A8(M) former M10 · M41 · M63 · A18(M) · A40(M) · A41(M) · A102(M) · A6144(M) unbuilt New M4  · M12 · M13 · M15 · M16 · M31 · M64