Highways Agency - Safe roads, Reliable journeys, Informed travellers

The Project

The scheme was one of a number of measures recommended by the London to the South West and South Wales Multi-Modal Study (the SWARMMS study). Following his consideration of the SWARMMS study, the Secretary of State added the scheme to the Targeted Programme of Improvements (this is now known as the Programme of Major Schemes) on 10 December 2002.

The scheme provided a climbing lane on the M5 northbound carriageway, on Tickenham Hill, between Junction 20 (Clevedon) and Junction 19 (Easton in Gordano and Gordano services). The total length of the scheme was approximately 2 miles/3.25 kilometres. All works were carried out within the existing motorway boundary.

This section of the motorway is particularly congested during peak hours and on summer weekends. The climbing lane extends to the top of the 4% gradient, before tapering back to three lanes from the outside lane on the north side of Court Hill Farm bridge within the split carriageway section.

The scheme included retaining walls to avoid the need for additional land, bridge modifications, strengthening and the provision of new signal gantries. The hardshoulder is discontinued at Court Lane overbridge to avoid acquiring additional land. Environmental mitigation measures and improvement works included drainage attenuation facilities to treat runoff from both the new and existing paved areas and improve water quality prior to discharging into local watercourses.

The Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) contact was awarded to Birse Civils Ltd on 6 April 2004.

The Environmental Statement was published on 12 May 2005, and the Secretary of State's decision to proceed with the scheme was issued in August. Works on site started in October 2005. The scheme was opened to traffic within budget on 30 June 2006.

Current Activities

Some closures (predominately hardshoulder) will be required to undertake minor remaining work e.g. planting work. It is not anticipated that this will cause any inconvenience to the travelling public.

Further information can be requested via m5j19-20climbinglanes@highways.gsi.gov.uk or by contacting Louise Brown on 0117 3728945.

• Indicative Scheme Layout (1.1MB PDF)

One Year After study

This scheme has been reviewed as part of our ongoing programme of Post Opening Project Evaluation (POPE).  The study compares  the outturn effects of this scheme and the other climbing lanes on this section of the M5, to the predicted impacts of the schemes.  A summary of the  one year after report is available to download here: M5 Climbing Lanes OYA summary (PDF 52KB).  If you require a full version of  this  report, please contact us.