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.
Better information for your journey
The National Traffic Control Centre collects real-time information on road conditions
Lane Hog!
John Stapleton looks into why people Lane Hog and what effects it has on the driver hogging the lane and other road users.
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
1. Introduction
1.1 This Technical Note has been prepared to detail the results of a pilot towing vehicle signing scheme on the M5 southbound between Junctions 19 and 20, Naish Hill during the summer school holiday period in 2004.
1.2 Naish Hill is immediately south of M5 Junction 19. It forms a continuous gradient of 3% uphill for southbound traffic over a distance of approximately 1.5km / 1 mile.
1.3 Southbound traffic approaches Naish Hill immediately after crossing Avonmouth Bridge. The bridge itself provides four lanes to M5 traffic. The nearside lane forms a lane-drop to M5 J19 for access to Gordano Services, Royal Portbury Docks and the A369 to South Bristol and Portishead. The motorway mainline carriageway continues in three lanes on a slight downhill gradient under M5 Junction 19 before the carriageway starts to rise again on approach to the main uphill gradient of Naish Hill. The southbound on-slip from J19 joins the M5 mainline carriageway just before the start of the uphill gradient.
1.4 During periods of heavy vehicle flow, extensive queues and delays occur at the start of Naish Hill, mainly on holiday weekends, particularly on Friday evenings and Saturday mornings in late July and August, Easter and bank holiday weekends. This congestion frequently extends along the M5 southbound from the M4/M5 interchange at Almondsbury (a distance of 15kms / 9.5 miles) and, at times, as far as Michaelwood Services (30kms / 19 miles).
1.5 It was suggested that congestion occurs at this location as a result of towing vehicles using lanes one and two to climb and overtake on Naish Hill, causing long tailbacks of congested traffic. As a result, a pilot scheme was implemented by the Highways Agency during summer holiday weekends directing towing vehicles to use Lane One on Naish Hill southbound.
1.6 The scheme was discussed ahead of the pilot period with the Caravan Club and motoring organisations and was reported in local and national media. The Highways Agency issued a Press Release on 21 July 2004 (see Appendix A). The press release stated: "On a two-mile stretch of the southbound M5, at Naish Hill immediately south of the Avonmouth Bridge, vehicles with trailers are to be advised to use the inside lane on Fridays and Saturdays from the end of July to help improve traffic flows. The advisory restrictions will be in place between 4.00pm and 8.00pm on Fridays and 8.00am and 2.00pm on Saturdays from 30/31July until 27/28 August."
1.7 The pilot was monitored by video cameras at seven locations for two 12-hour periods: midday to midnight on Fridays; and from 06.00 to 18.00hrs on Saturdays. The period of survey extended from the Friday/Saturday of 16/17 July 2004 to 3/4 September 2004, which included the pilot period 30/31 July to 27/28 August, so that the periods before and after the signing scheme could also be monitored to provide a means of measuring the effectiveness of the pilot.
