Inside the works delivering Mottram bypass

Mottram was once a rural village with a smattering of farmsteads bordering Greater Manchester and Derbyshire.

Over the decades things have changed. Rolling fields and livestock have made way for houses, people and roads buzzing with cars.

The beautiful scenery can easily be admired by drivers passing by – because they’re usually stuck in queues in their cars. The A57 is a major route that connects Manchester to Sheffield, but it is notorious for having a huge traffic problem.

That problem is even worse at the moment as National Highways work on their solution – the Mottram bypass. This project, actually called the A57 Link Roads scheme, has been designed to reduce congestion and improve journey times and reliability across the Pennines.

Visible signs of the new bypass are already there. A maze of orange traffic cones surrounds the roundabout where the A57 meets the M67.

A flyover from that roundabout is due to loop around Mottram village, go under Roe Cross, down to Mottram Moor and beyond towards Woolley Lane – ending at Woolley Bridge.

The £228m project is being carried out by contractors Balfour Beatty, which has have hundreds of workers in operation at their base just off Hyde Road, opposite the Hattersley Tesco.

Balfour Beatty’s construction manager, Carl Dunsire, was tasked with providing a tour of their latest work for the Manchester Evening News. It was clear how much of an engineering nerd he was, oozing with passion when discussing piling drills and the massive holes they were putting in the ground around Roe Cross.

His tour guide routine was well-practised, as he recalled doing many for various stakeholders in recent months as we travelled through Mottram at a snail’s pace. Hyde Road was chock-a-block with traffic even during off-peak times.

The village route was littered with orange cones and National Highways signage all the way down to Hollingworth village. Before getting to the most active site just next to the Mottram Moor/Woolley Lane junction, we had to stop at a plant crossing between two of Balfour Beatty’s construction sites.

What happened next was like a military operation. Several yellow behemoths were queued up on both sides of Mottram Moor to cross and when the fences came down a plethora of construction vehicles trundled across.

Once both sides were over Mottram Moor a small road cleaning vehicle went across, followed by a chap with a big broom to pick up any bigger debris. This showcased the contractors’ clean up responsibilities – stopping construction dirt from spreading all over the local road network.

After the parade of diggers and drills had ended, we headed down to the site off Woolley Lane. There we met the ‘black cap’ (man with a black hard hat) who was in charge of site safety.

He told us we could only walk in designated areas and ensured we all had our protective clothing on. I was donning oversized hi-vis trousers and vest, complete with safety goggles and a white hard hat – and the boots I brought from home.

From there we were guided towards the giant piling drill. Lots of technical detail was discussed, but it was essentially digging a big hole to put a concrete post in.

Multiple concrete posts would be installed in order to support the earthworks that would hold up the new dual carriageway. There was a ‘here’s one we made earlier’ moment at Roe Cross, where you could see where they had done this already.

The land had contoured around an embankment, where you could already see the makings of the through route underneath. This is where the new dual carriageway will cut around the outskirts of Mottram village.

Carl was particularly happy with the ‘quality of earth’ around Mottram. This is because its makeup meant it was strong enough, when packed down, to use in their earthworks – cutting the amount of concrete required in the project by half.

The reduction meant 5,293 tonnes of concrete would be used rather than 10,600 tonnes. This was a green highlight for the National Highways team.

After we removed the PPE and got in the minivan back to base, the team shared how the recent wildfires on Tintwistle led to tough conditions in terms of smoke and visibility.

However, it didn’t cause any delays. In fact, unlike most major infrastructure projects, this link road scheme is currently estimated to be delivered on time and on budget.

Andrew Scatchard, senior project manager at National Highways, said: “We are still on budget and in terms of timings we are still on track for winter 2028/29.

“The next major roadworks will be at the back end of the scheme, so it won’t be until 2028. So it won’t be for another couple of years.

“Before you could see on the cameras the traffic backing up all the way up the A57 to the roundabout onto the M67. All that traffic, which is travelling between Manchester and Sheffield, we anticipate will move onto the dual carriageway.

“This would take traffic away from the local area so we can improve journey times, reliability and relieve the congestion coming through the village.

“Any particular works that we plan that will impact residents, we will have a traffic management plan. We’ll have early engagement so residents are aware of what is happening.

“National Highways has the net zero ambition that we’re striving towards with this project. We are seeing what we can do in terms of reducing that carbon impact on the environment.

“In terms of future schemes, that will come out in the wash and be announced by the Department for Transport.”

Once completed the project will have constructed two new link roads. One is Mottram Moor link road – a new dual carriageway from the M67 junction 4 roundabout to a new junction on the A57 at Mottram Moor.

The other is the A57 link road – a new single carriageway link from the A57 at Mottram Moor to a new junction on the A57 in Woolley Bridge.

The major scheme is estimated to be up and running by the end of 2028, according to Mr Scatchard.