M56 motorway

Although the main line of the motorway starts as a continuation of the A5103 Princess Parkway, the M56 begins on Sharston Spur (also known as the Sharston Bypass) where it detaches from the M60 motorway. After passing through junctions 1 and 2, the spur joins the main line at junction 3, increasing from two lanes to four to accommodate Manchester Airport traffic.

The road then heads south to the west of Wythenshawe and Manchester Airport until it reaches junction 6, where it turns west. It runs to the south of Hale, reducing to three lanes. It passes junctions 7 and 8 which are part of the same complex. Junction 8 was planned to be used by the proposed A556(M).[2] The A556 was upgraded to dual carriageway in 2018,[3] Traffic for the southbound M6 leaves here and so the junction can suffer from congestion. The motorway then enters a more rural setting between Broomedge and High Legh.

After meeting the M6 motorway, it passes south of Appleton Thorn. After reaching junction 11, it runs through the outskirts of Runcorn and Frodsham. Between junctions 12 and 14, and the missing junction 13, it runs parallel to the River Mersey and the Manchester Ship Canal. After meeting the M53 motorway, the road finally returns to two lanes, it proceeds between Chester to the south and Ellesmere Port to its termination at Dunkirk, Cheshire, where it becomes the A494.

Traffic for North Wales can take either the M53 or the A494 to reach the A55.

The motorway services on the M56 are Chester (Run by Roadchef) and Lymm (Run by Moto, also accessible from M6)

The first proposal for a motorway across north Cheshire was mooted in 1947 in a report commissioned by Cheshire County Council,[4] with a line for the route of the motorway being agreed in 1958 bewteen the council and the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation.[5] The first section, announced in November 1963 by the transport minister Ernest Marples, was a southwards extension of the Princess Parkway from Wythenshawe in Manchester to the A56 and A556 at Bowdon which entered the Trunk Road Programme for 1967/1968.[5] Construction began in 1968,[6] and the motorway opened in stages between 1971 and 1981:[7]

• Junctions 11 to 14: Opened in 1971.
• Junctions 3 to 7: Opened in 1972.
• Junctions 7 to 9: Opened in 1974.
• Junctions 1 to 3 and 9 to 11: Opened in 1975.
• Junctions 14 to 16: Opened in 1981. This contains the only section of the motorway paved with concrete, between junctions 15 and 16. Where it crosses the floodplain of the River Gowy, the carriageway sits on an embankment of sandstone from a special-purpose quarry, which was constructed to replace existing peat deposits. The junction with the M53 at Stoak was also included in the construction contracts.[8]

Proposals existed for an extension into North Wales across the proposed Dee Barrage,[9][10] but as of the 2020s these have never materialised.

The carriageway between junctions 4 and 6 was widened from the original dual 3 lane configuration to dual 4 lanes during the 1990s as part of a nationwide motorway widening programme first proposed in the 1989 Roads to Prosperity white paper.[11] Junction 5 became a lane drop/gain in both directions whereas junction 4 was reconfigured from a two-bridge roundabout to a signalised half-diamond with a single bridge.[12]

Prior to 2008, the western end of the motorway terminated at a roundabout on the A5117. Work began in 2006 to grade-separate this junction (and others) to allow free-flowing traffic between the motorway and the A550 at Deeside in North Wales, meaning that the mainline motorway no longer connects to the roundabout (it meets the extended A494 head-on 235 metres east),[13] with the former eastbound carriageway retained as an on-slip.[14]

Data[15] from driver location signs is used to provide distance information.

M56 motorway junctions
mile	km	Eastbound exits (B Carriageway)	Junction	Westbound exits (A Carriageway)
		Motorway merges onto M60 continuing towards Stockport	M60 J4	Start of motorway (Sharston Spur)
		Manchester City Centre, Didsbury A34	J1	No access (on-slip only)
		No access (on-slip only)	J2	Altrincham, Wythenshawe A560, Liverpool (M62), Bolton (M61) (M60)
		End of motorway Road continues as A5103 towards Manchester	J3A	Sharston, Altrincham, Baguley A560
		Altrincham, Wythenshawe, Wythenshawe , Cheadle A560		Start of motorway (Princess Parkway Spur)
		Manchester City Centre, (M60(N&W)), (M62(W)), (M61) (A5103)	J3 (TOTSO EB)	No access (on-slip only)
7.2	11.6	No access (on-slip only)	J4	Wythenshawe
		End of motorway Wilmslow, Wythenshawe A555 (B5166), Business Park, Terminal 3 Terminal 1,		Start of motorway (Airport Spur)
		Terminal 2		No access (on-slip only)
7.8	12.6	Manchester	J5	Manchester , Quarry Bank Mill
8.9	14.3	Hale, Wilmslow, Macclesfield A538	J6	Wilmslow, Hale, Macclesfield, Manchester Airport Freight Terminal A538
		Entering Greater Manchester		River Bollin
		River Bollin		Entering Cheshire
12.4	19.9	Northwich A556, Altrincham A56	J7	Birmingham (M6(S)), Northwich A556, Lymm A56
		No access	J8	No access (on-slip only)
17.6	28.3	Preston, Birmingham M6, Leeds, Manchester (N) (M62), Lymm (A50) Lymm Truck Stop	J9 Services	Preston M6, Liverpool (M62), Warrington, Lymm (A50) Lymm Truck Stop
20.8	33.4	Warrington, Northwich A49	J10	Northwich, Warrington A49
23.8	38.3	Runcorn (East), Warrington A56	J11	Preston Brook, Daresbury A56
26.8	43.1	Liverpool , Runcorn, Widnes A557	J12	Liverpool , Frodsham, Runcorn, Widnes A557
		Weaver Viaduct
31.9	51.4	Stanlow, Helsby A5117 Chester services	J14 Services	Helsby, Stanlow, Chester Zoo A5117 Chester services
34.5	55.6	No access (on-slip only)	J15	Chester, Wrexham M53
		No access (on-slip only)		Ellesmere Port, Birkenhead M53
		Start of motorway	J16	No access
		Ellesmere Port A5117, Whitchurch (A41) Non-motorway traffic		End of motorway Road continues as A494 towards North Wales
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi       Incomplete access

[20]

The government announced in August 2015 that the motorway between junctions 6 and 8 would be upgraded to a smart motorway as part of its Northern Powerhouse strategy, work began in 2020 with completion anticipated by the end of 2021.[21]

There was also to be a new junction 11a at Runcorn between the existing Junctions 11 and 12 to relieve heavy congestion on this stretch and serve the new Mersey Gateway bridge. However, this project was cancelled by Highways England in Spring 2020 as it didn't represent value for money.[22][23]

"The M56 corridor" is a term used by estate agents and social geographers to describe what is considered to be a relatively affluent area of North West England, within easy reach of the M56. The area includes the cities of Manchester and Chester, and commuter towns and villages in rural Cheshire. It also includes Warrington and Runcorn where the chemical and pharmaceutical industries are prominent.[24]

• List of motorways in the United Kingdom
• A56 road
• Chester to Manchester Line

• CBRD Motorway Database - M56
• The Motorway Archive - M56