M6 will remain open during weekend Lancaster to Preston bridge works after rethink by National Highways

National Highways have announced today, Wednesday, that the scheduled full closure will now not take place.

It follows large-scale criticism after chaos ensued earlier this month when motorists were left in tailbacks lasting up to 12 hours during the first of four planned weekend closures of the road.

Last weekend the closure was put on hold by Highways England due to the Queen’s funeral service taking place on Monday.

The closures had been planned over four full weekends for maintenance work to be carried out on renewing the waterproofing and surface on the bridges, which carry the M6 over Whittingham Lane and Stubbins Lane, north of junction 32.

While the concrete bridge decks are exposed, they also plan to carry out further inspections and repair work with the aim of reducing the need for reactive repairs in the future.

However, they now say they will “do things differently”.

A spokesman said: “We have taken on board recent feedback and plan to do things differently while we confirm the rest of the programme with our contractors; we no longer plan to carry out this work under full weekend closures.

"Some of our people will be on site overnight on Friday to complete work already in progress, however this will be done under lane closures – the M6 will remain open.

“Once the new programme has been finalised with our contractors, we will share more information [on the National Highways website] and via our social media channels.”