General   (General discussion, talk about anything.)

Chris Southworth "I know all about this proposed new road"

The route which nearly was built in the late 1980s, early 1990s, from where it would have crossed the WCML at Lower Ince, that road would have taken a completely different route, to the road which Wigan Council want to build.

The 1990 route would have followed the old loop line to almost where it joined with the existing Wigan to Manchester line at the bridge over Manchester Road/Wigan Road at Hindley, it would have crossed Wigan Road, and then gone around Hindley and come out on Cricketers Way at Westhoughton, and Cricketers Way is actually part of that 1990 road route, and from the other end of Cricketers Way, they would have then demolished properties on Park Road, to which the Cricketers Way dual carriageway would have then extended up Park Road, to the Chequerbent Roundabout, the plan was for the route to have gone under where the roundabout is, and then have joined the M61 at a new junction built to the west of the existing M61 junction.

The 1990 road came within six months of construction starting, because all of the public enquiries and planning permissions had been dealt with, and the government would have funded the road, and it would have been built by the then Ministry of Transport.

But John Major's Tory Government, at the onset of the then economic recession of that time, cancelled all new road building throughout the country, except for roads which were already under construction.
And the A5225 M58 to M61 Link Road, which is what the road was known as, it was given the status of "Shelved Awaiting Funding" and it remained like that until 1997 when the newly elected Labour Government of Tony Blair, formally cancelled the project, as part of an election manifesto pledge, to have 'moratorium' on new road building, and that was when the war on motorists began, with speed bumps, and the fuel escalator etc

At that Wigan Council took over the project, and they legally protected the route from development, and said that they would try and build the road themselves, in several sections over several years, but they opted for a different route, that being after the road had crossed the WCML and Warrington Road, it would then veer to the right of the 1990 route, and go around Spring View, and through the Amberswood area, emerging in between Hindley and Platt Bridge, at where the old Strangeways Pub, and the former Hindley South train station were located, and then the road would follow another old railway line route, which runs parallel with Atherton Road, it eventually joining Atherleigh Way at Atherton, the idea then is for Atherleigh Way to continue on from Gibfield, and up to the M61, but Bolton Council have plonked the Hulton Park development in the way, which will block off access to the M61 from Gibfield LINK

But looking at the map, they could instead run a new road across Atherleigh Way, and carry on following that old railway line, and cross Tyldesley Road, in between Atherton and Tyldesley at Hindsford, and then it is mainly countryside up to actually the original junction on the M61, which was meant to receive the link road from the M58 at Orrell.

But apparently

The government are looking at the original 1990 route, and that would include bringing the road from the M58 as a dual carriageway, and across Billinge Road, to the west of Pemberton Station, and then along at the back of Billinge Road, and joining the old railway line, at where it started at the present Little Lane bridge, this would cut off Little Lane from Billinge Road at that point, and the difference being that traffic would not be going along Squiffy Brook Way, which is how the council have planned the route to go, instead the link road from the M58 would lead directly on to the present new link road, either across or over Warrington Road at Goose Green.

This government is funding such projects, and one such project is the Preston Western Distributor and East-West Link Road LINK

Lucky Preston

Will Wigan get the original 1990 routed M58 to M61 Link Road ?

I doubt it very much