The M67 is a urban motorway in

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...

, England, which heads east from the

M60 motorway The M60 motorway, Manchester Ring Motorway or Manchester Outer Ring Road is an orbital motorway in North West England. Built over a 40-year period, it passes through most of Greater Manchester's metropolitan boroughs except for Wigan and Bol ...

passing through Denton and Hyde before ending near

Mottram Mottram is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Buster Mottram, former British tennis player, son of Tony Mottram * Craig Mottram, Australian distance runner * Don Mottram, English flavour chemist * Eric Mottram, English poet * Hei ...

. The road was originally conceived as the first section of a trans- Pennine motorway between

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

and

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

that would connect the

A57(M) motorway The Mancunian Way is a two mile long grade separated elevated motorway in Manchester, England. It is officially made up of the A57(M) and A635(M) motorways, although the latter does not appear on road signs for practical reasons. It is also pa ...

with the

M1 motorway The M1 motorway connects London to Leeds, where it joins the A1(M) near Aberford, to connect to Newcastle. It was the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the UK; the first motorway in the country was the Preston By-pass, which lat ...

; however, the motorway became the only part to be built. Numerous calls have been made to complete the motorway link between Manchester and Sheffield, the second and ninth most populous urban areas within the United Kingdom. Traffic between the cities is mainly divided between the

Snake Snakes are elongated, Limbless vertebrate, limbless, carnivore, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other Squamata, squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping Scale (zoology), scales. Ma ...

and Woodhead passes, which traverse the

Peak District The Peak District is an upland area in England at the southern end of the Pennines. Mostly in Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southe ...

. Plans for a £180m improvement to the route by bypassing

and

Tintwistle Tintwistle is a village and civil parish in the High Peak district of the non-metropolitan county of Derbyshire, England. Historically in Cheshire, according to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 1,401, reducing marginally to 1,400 ...

, the A57/A628 Mottram in Longdendale, Hollingworth and Tintwistle Bypass, and the 'Glossop spur' linking to the

A57 road The A57 is a major road in England. It runs east from Liverpool to Lincoln, England, Lincoln via Warrington, Cadishead, Irlam, Patricroft, Eccles, Greater Manchester, Eccles, Salford, Greater Manchester, Salford and Manchester, then through t ...

are currently at the public inquiry stage but were 'suspended indefinitely' in January 2008. There are now proposals to link the two cities with a tunnelled scheme underneath the Peak District, some of the proposed routes using the existing M67 route.

Route

The M67 heads east from the

, passing through Denton and Hyde before ending near

. From the end of the motorway traffic can either follow the

A628 road The A628 is a major road connecting Greater Manchester and South Yorkshire in northern England. It crosses the Pennine hills by way of Longdendale and the Woodhead Pass in the Peak District National Park. The road's altitude and exposure to b ...

or the

further east to the

and

. Before the motorway reaches its eastern terminal at

Hattersley Hattersley is an area of Tameside, Greater Manchester, England; it is located west of Glossop and east of Manchester city centre, at the eastern terminus of the M67. Historically part of Tintwistle Rural District in Cheshire until 1974, it i ...

/Mottram roundabout (where traffic continues along the A57 into

Longdendale Longdendale is a valley in the Peak District of England, north of Glossop and southwest of Holmfirth. The name means "long wooded valley" and the valley is mostly in the counties of Derbyshire and Greater Manchester. Geography The eastern part ...

), there are the stub 'ski ramps' where the motorway would have continued eastwards, as there are at the western end.

History

In 1965 the Ministry of Transport asked Halcrow to report on a route selected by the

County Surveyor A county surveyor is a public official in the United Kingdom and the United States. United Kingdom Webb & Webb describe the increasing chaos that began to prevail within this same period in field of county surveying in England and Wales, with c ...

of Cheshire and this led, in stages, to the development of the design to partial urban and partial rural motorway standards. There was a public inquiry in 1967. The first section to be opened was the 'M67 Hyde Bypass' which was constructed between 1975 and 1978. M67 Denton Relief Road to the west was constructed between 1978 and 1981. These schemes are connected by a viaduct over the River Tame and

Peak Forest Canal The Peak Forest Canal is a narrow ( gauge) locked artificial waterway in northern England. It is long and forms part of the connected English/Welsh inland waterway network. Route and features General description The canal consists of two level ...

M67 Manchester to Sheffield motorway

In 1967, at the time of the first public inquiry there were discussions regarding an extension of the motorway across the Peak District National Park. It was to provide a second motorway link across the

Pennines The Pennines (), also known as the Pennine Chain or Pennine Hills, are a range of uplands running between three regions of Northern England: North West England on the west, North East England and Yorkshire and the Humber on the east. Commo ...

to the south of the planned M62 and avoid the

and Woodhead passes, which are often closed in snowy weather. The full proposed route was to start from

Manchester city centre Manchester City Centre is the central business district of Manchester in Greater Manchester, England situated within the confines of Great Ancoats Street, A6042 Trinity Way, and A57(M) Mancunian Way which collectively form an inner ring road. ...

at what was the

eastern terminal roundabout (now a flyover for the A635, constructed in 1995), following the line of the A57 Hyde Road through the inner suburbs of Ardwick,

Gorton Gorton is an area of Manchester in North West England, southeast of the city centre. The population at the 2011 census was 36,055. Neighbouring areas include Levenshulme and Openshaw. A major landmark is Gorton Monastery, a 19th-century Hi ...

and Debdale Park. Large-scale demolition took place along the line of the motorway (which is still evident today), tied in with the widening of the Belle Vue and Reddish Lane junctions. From there the intended route follows the present-day M67, skirting Hyde and Denton. Upon reaching Mottram, the route passed the village to the north (through a tunnel), then crossed Mottram Moor to skirt

Hollingworth Hollingworth is a village in the Metropolitan Borough of Tameside, in Greater Manchester, England. It is about 11 miles (19 km) east of Manchester on the Derbyshire border near Glossop. Historically part of Cheshire, it gave its name to ...

through the

Etherow The River Etherow is a river in northern England, and a tributary of the River Goyt. Although now passing through South Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Greater Manchester, it historically formed the ancient county boundary between Cheshire and Derby ...

valley floor. The motorway would then have run around the side of Bottoms Reservoir to reach Hadfield, from which the trackbed of the Woodhead railway line (the former intercity route between Manchester and Sheffield, now closed) was to have been followed up the

valley to Woodhead. At Woodhead, the route would have diverged, with one carriageway entering the Woodhead Rail Tunnel (now disused) and the other rising on a sweeping viaduct to go over a realigned Woodhead Pass. Beyond the Pennine watershed, the motorway would have continued on a new alignment past the villages of

Langsett Langsett is a village and civil parish near Penistone in South Yorkshire. It lies near the southern edge of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and on the edge of the Peak District National Park. At the 2001 census it had a population of 161, ...

and Midhopestones, before meeting the route of the current

Stocksbridge bypass Stocksbridge is a town and civil parish, in the City of Sheffield, in South Yorkshire, England. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it lies just to the east of the Peak District. The town is located in the steep-sided valley of th ...

. The Stocksbridge bypass would have been constructed on its present alignment and continued directly onto the M1 at junction 35a. Another part of the originally planned "M67" exists in

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a ceremonial and metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of Doncaster and Sheffield as well as the boroughs of Barnsley and Rotherham. In N ...

, as the A616

which opened in 1989. As there was no certainty that the whole M67 scheme would be completed by this time, the then government decided that the scheme would not be built with motorway characteristics, but as a single carriageway with crawler lanes.

Proposed developments

A57/A628 Mottram in Longdendale, Hollingworth and Tintwistle Bypass

Plans for a road at the eastern end of the M67 passing to the north of the current A628 route past

and

were cancelled in 2009 following four adjournments of the public inquiry due to inconsistencies in the official traffic models.

Manchester to Sheffield Peak District Tunnel

After the cancellation of the Mottram in Longdendale, Hollingworth and Tintwistle Bypass, there are now proposals to build a tunnel underneath the Peak District to link Manchester and Sheffield, with some of the proposed tunnel routes using the existing M67 route to link the M60 and M1 motorways. In 2017, this was later scaled down into a partially tunnelled route along the existing Woodhead Pass due to rising costs.

Junctions

{, class="plainrowheaders wikitable" , - !scope=col, County !scope=col, Location !scope=col, mi !scope=col, km !scope=col, Junction !scope=col, Destinations !scope=col, Notes , - , rowspan="5" ,

, rowspan="3" , Denton , 0 , 0 , 1 , – Stockport, Oldham
– Central Manchester , , - , 0.9 , 1.4 , bgcolor="ffdddd" , 1a , bgcolor="ffdddd" , – Denton,

Ashton under Lyne Ashton-under-Lyne is a market town in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England. The population was 45,198 at the 2011 census. Historically in Lancashire, it is on the north bank of the River Tame, in the foothills of the Pennines, east of Manc ...

, bgcolor="ffdddd" , No westbound exit or eastbound entrance , - , 1.5 , 2.4 , bgcolor="ffdddd" , 2 , bgcolor="ffdddd" , – Hyde, Denton , bgcolor="ffdddd" , No eastbound exit or westbound entrance , - , Hyde , 2.4 , 3.8 , 3 , – Hyde, Denton
– Dukinfield , , - , — , 4.7 , 7.6 , 4 , – Hyde,

Glossop Glossop is a market town in the Borough of High Peak, Derbyshire, England. It is located east of Manchester, north-west of Sheffield and north of the county town, Matlock. Glossop lies near Derbyshire's borders with Cheshire, Greater Manches ...

–

Stockport Stockport is a town and borough in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt and Tame merge to create the River Mersey here. Most of the town is within ...

, , - *Ceremonial Counties ;Coordinate list

Notes

Citations

External links

CBRD Motorway Database – M67

Pathetic Motorways – M67

Pathetic Motorways – Manchester to Sheffield Motorway

Greater Manchester Records office – Transport Archives
{{DEFAULTSORT:6-0067 Motorways in England Roads in Greater Manchester