Highways England has appointed Costain and Jacobs as delivery integration partners to design and manage the construction of the Simister Island interchange improvement project, which is a £138m scheme.

The Simister Island interchange is one of the busiest motorway junctions in the North West, used by around 90,000 vehicles each day. The junction struggles with high volumes of traffic, far above what it was designed for, and as a result suffers from congestion and poor journey time reliability. 

Highways England says the scheme will improve the journey experience for users of this section of network by reducing peak congestion and providing faster average speeds, delivering more reliable journeys and reducing journey times overall.

Malcolm Bell, Costain programme director, said: “This is a critical project supporting economic growth in the North of England; improving traffic flow that connects businesses and communities. Costain will deploy digital tools to improve productivity and effectiveness throughout the programme to enable the timely delivery of safer, greener and more efficient roads.”

A public consultation on the scheme is now being planned for this winter, and a planning application is due to be submitted next year. If the plans are approved by the government, then work on the project could start by spring 2025.