‘Significant work’ to M62 after lorry fire causes traffic chaos

“Significant work” was undertaken to repair the M62 after a lorry fire, closing the motorway during key commuter times and causing misery for thousands of motorists.
The clean up work. Picture: Highways EnglandThe clean up work. Picture: Highways England
The clean up work. Picture: Highways England

Motorists faced severe traffic disruption during both morning and evening rush hours after a lorry fire closed a stretch of the M62 yesterday.

There were long tailbacks in the morning after both carriageways were shut to deal with the blaze, which happened shortly after 6.30am, between Junction 29 at M1 Lofthouse and Junction 30 at Rothwell.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The carriageways were initially cleared at around 11.45am after skips and tipper trucks were used to clear “vast amounts of debris” away from the carriageway, a statement from Highways England said.

But after diesel had been cleared up by 1.45pm, contractors were able to fully assess the damage and deemed that all four lanes required plaining and full resurfacing.

Highways England said: “As con­trac­tors had resources in place, plain­ing work com­menced straight away and once com­pleted resur­fac­ing work started at 18:23 hours. White lin­ing and stud replace­ment work was required once resur­fac­ing of all 4 lanes had been com­pleted. After a sig­nif­i­cant amount of work to restore the car­riage­way, it was con­firmed by our North East Regional Con­trol Cen­tre that all works had been com­pleted and the road clo­sure was removed at 23:22 hours.”

The traffic problems were exacerbated by a collision on the Leeds inner ring road at a time when the city’s roads were busy with Christmas shopping traffic and people heading to a performance by magician Dynamo at the First Direct Arena.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Drivers in Wakefield also had to contend with a major city centre route being closed due to an accident. Doncaster Road was closed for more than four hours after a woman was hit by a car shortly after 1pm, affecting rush hour traffic.