M6 drivers will notice a huge change from today as hated restrictions lifted

The 50mph average speed limit on the M6 near Wigan has today finally been lifted.

The reduced speed limit had been in place on a 10 mile stretch of motorway since mid-October while work on a £260m upgrade was carried out. But at 7am today the restrictions were lifted and an extra lane on both carriageways opened for the first time.

Work began in March 2021 and was originally scheduled to finish in the spring of this year. But a decision to almost double the number of emergency areas being created - lay-bys where drivers can pull off if something goes wrong - and resurface the roads led to a delay.

It came after the Government scrapped plans for any new smart motorways. Speaking in December last year Felicity Clayton, from National Highways, said: "We have listened to drivers' concerns about being able to find a safe place to stop in an emergency on motorways which don’t have a permanent hard shoulder and have been developing a programme to roll out even more emergency areas on all lane running smart motorways, in operation and construction."

Other work included the introduction of stopped vehicle detection technology between the Croft Interchange with the M62 at junction 21a and the M58 interchange at junction 26 for Orrell.

National Highways say the work will help to 'improve journey times and reliability for the tens of thousands of drivers who use the route daily'.