Driving to Manchester via Woodhead

[Chumley 10]

Seeing as Osborne wants pension funds to invest in infratructure, this might be a good time to put ideas forward (there are more than enough members on here to get a 100K petition up).

 

My thoughts are:

 

1. The railway tunnels are nowhere near big enough. You wouldn't even get two lanes of HGVs through, never mind a motorway.

 

2. It would probably be cheaper, and have less environmental impact, to widen Woodhead.

 

3. Would it achieve anything? Average speeds between Sheffield and Manchester are tedious, but total journey time is much less than comparable cities in say France or Germany, let alone China or the US. Our economy needs more than a few extra lanes of traffic to get it sorted.

[DerbyTup 10]

The M67 was supposed to be that motorway, but they abandomned it.

 

http://pathetic.org.uk/unbuilt/m67_manchester_to_sheffield_motorway/

 

was it something to do with the abandominal snowman?

[Jim Hardie 527]

First of all, the M67 across the pennines will never happen because it would go through the Peak District national park. Contrary to popular belief, the M62 doesn't. There has been an on-off plan to bulid a 4-mile bypass around the villages at the Manchester end of the A628. This involves a short tunnel, but also involves a tiny stretch of new road being built on the National Park. The complications caused by this have been horrendous with public inquiries etc, and now it's off the radar due to costs. I feel sorry for the poor folks in those villages as it must be a nightmare getting from A to B even for stuff like the school run.

 

If you are going to North Manchester, don't turn onto the A628 at the Flouch Inn Roundabout. Go straight on towards Huddersfield on the A616, and turn left towards Holmfirth on the B-Road. From there, the A635 across Saddleworth Moor is a fairly quiet road, and lands on the M60 at Ashton-under-Lyne.

 

For the nonexistence of a decent road between Manchester and Sheffield we are indebted to a gentleman by the name of Lt Col Gerald Haythornthwaite who for many years stuck his oar in every time such a road was proposed.

[HeadingNorth 11]

First of all, the M67 across the pennines will never happen because it would go through the Peak District national park. Contrary to popular belief, the M62 doesn't.

 

But the M6 does, for a short section. Passing through a national park is not an automatic ban to a motorway.

[nubile 10]

Passing through a national park is not an automatic ban to a motorway.

 

Though it should be.

[xenia 11]

who's paying for it?

 

The construction should be part of the governments infrastructure project. e.g lots of workers paying plenty of tax etc

[Stockers 10]

Someone from the motorway maintainance told me its been in the pipeline for about 35yrs and the planners are buying up houses etc to help clear the way for a new motorway but it is more than likely another 35yrs off.

[Jeffrey Shaw 90]

We should have a direct Motorway across the pennines to Manchester starting in Sheffield and joining the M67.

 

The current Woodhead route is ridiculous. If we could open up the route the amount of trade we would generate would be an absolute godsend to Sheffield and South Yorkshire.

Yes, or:

a. just link Snake and Woodhead; and/or

b. link the western end of the Snake to the M67 (bypassing Glossop, Tintwistle, etc.)

[md00071 10]

These links should give you a clue to the depth of feeling about the issue of improving the Woodhead Pass. http://www.mjpatch.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk

 

one is pro, one very against.

 

There is no easy option to improve things on the Woodhead Pass. Another option the highways agency looked at was to build a dual-carriageway link road between the M1 at Haigh (Barnsley) and the M62 at Clifton nr Brighouse. This was planned and researched in the 90s, and was dropped due to there being not enough need for it. I was living near the proposed route for this at the time, and I can tell you that local opposition to the idea was almost non-exisitent. If the Woodhead Pass is to be given up as an insolvable problem, then this is the kind of other option they ought to be looking at.

[md00071 10]

http://www.saveswallowswood.org.uk

 

This is the anti-bypass link missing from the post above.

[Mellington 10]

The Woodhead rail tunnel is still in use - it has power cables through it. A great way to hide them, but another reason why now that rail route cannot be reopened, nor could it be transformed for road vehicles. Too much of the land which did have the railway on it originally has been sold off and built over in other places too.

[Lesterfan 10]

It would bring in lots of additional trade, it would make Sheffield commutable in Manchester and could only improve the Sheffield economy IMO.