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M62 - Your Local History
A lot of finds were uncovered during the archaeological evaluation carried out for the M62 Junction 6 Improvement scheme so we thought it would be nice to provide an interactive website so you can see what we found.
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Better information for your journey
The National Traffic Control Centre collects real-time information on road conditions
Quick Links
Don't Cross or Walk Along Motorways
The Highways Agency aims to make more people aware of the dangers of walking or crossing our motorway. We have launched a poster and radio campaign aimed at 16-25yr olds. Hopefully with our hard hitting posters, our message will come across.
Educating tomorrow's drivers
See how we are driving through key messages about safety on our network for the drivers of tomorrow.
Meet the Ancestors
Find out about the history of roads and the work the Agency does to preserve archaeological remains.
See when traffic will be lightest
Our traffic forecaster can help get you there quicker
Results from the M42
The use of hard shoulder running on the M42 has shown that innovative thinking can help cut congestion.
Initial fears from safety campaigners have proved unfounded as the number of accidents on the stretch has actually decreased - the accident rate went down from 5.1 a month to 1.8 a month. 
As well as the decrease in the accident rate, the first twelve months of the trial on the M42 have seen other significant benefits for motorists, the environment and the economy. Use of the hard shoulder in peak periods saw average journey times fall by more than a quarter on the northbound carriageway and drivers' ability to predict their weekday journey times improved by 27%. Alongside this, overall fuel consumption reduced by 4% and vehicle emissions fell by up to 10%.
The scheme is also very popular with motorists, with 68% saying they felt more informed about traffic conditions and 60% saying that they would like to see it extended elsewhere on the motorway network.
To find out more about the M42 results please visit the Highways Agency Research Compendium.
