M6 Junction 19 improvement scheme

Creating a collaborative culture to secure client trust and key stakeholder engagement

Amey and Sir Robert McAlpine have a strong track record of working together over the last 23 years and were part of the first delivery integration team to jointly enter a Collaboration Charter with the whole supply chain to deliver value to clients and customers.

Throughout the project we worked closely with National Highways to align with their aims to drive value engineering, and to realise health and safety, environmental, operational and cost benefits, coming a close second for CIHT 2021 Team of the Year, illustrating how we were able to understand the client’s values and how our ways of working complemented these effectively.

The collaborative culture of the AmeySRM integrated project team (IPT) also fostered greater innovation and efficiency. Through collaboration and integrated working, we solved numerous technical challenges and drove innovation into our solutions. Behaviours and ways of working together improved the design solution and therefore the overall performance of the project – critical, considering we delivered the entire construction phase during a pandemic.

This collaborative culture also helped secure early engagement with key stakeholders such as the SES (Safety, Engineering and Standards) team at National Highways, an approval authority custodian of Highway Standards, and WSP, technical advisors to National Highways. Having these key stakeholders integrated into the team meant we could find and approve innovative solutions to technical problems more quickly.  

Councillor Craig Browne, deputy leader of Cheshire East Council and chair of its highways and transport committee noted:

“The whole project team are to be congratulated on delivering this important and complex scheme under the twin pressures of poor weather and Covid working restrictions, while keeping travel disruption to a minimum”.

Going above and beyond – providing more than just increased capacity

The M6 Junction 19 improvement scheme’s innovative design and successful construction have increased the motorway’s capacity while enhancing connectivity between the M6 and A556 through advanced link roads. However, the completed Junction 19 boasts extensive benefits beyond its primary arterial enhancements. By alleviating congestion on the M6, it’s notably bolstered network safety and improved air quality. Users now enjoy faster, more dependable journeys, boosting overall satisfaction and enabling economic growth through expanded junction capacity and reliable travel times.

Moreover, the comprehensive project has showcased the benefits of seamless collaboration and addressing a complex junction with innovative design. It’s a catalyst for regional economic growth, complementing other enhancements to Manchester’s southern access, such as improvements to the A556 and ongoing smart motorway projects. The project has also invested £9.4m in local businesses and prioritised local pedestrian and cyclist access by widening footways, installing crossings, and renewing traffic signals and road signs, promoting safety, and facilitating smoother navigation.

Enhancing the local environment and nearby communities

As well as improving air quality and boosting the local economy, the project also provided several other sustainability and social value benefits.

As the bridge is set within the existing footprint of the roundabout, we’ve reduced land take. Life-cycle analysis resulted in the specification of weathering steel girders and stainless-steel bearings, doubling their lifespan and negating future repainting activities. We planted native grassland, trees and shrubs with the SuDS Pond installation to remove pollutants from surface water runoff and to provide ecological potential. And we disposed of waste in accordance with the waste hierarchy, including reusing/recycling cat’s eyes where possible, and reusing waste material as recycled aggregate.

The project team engaged in several environmental awareness initiatives. To celebrate World Environment Day, we planted flowers in repurposed tyres around the site. To mark Cycle to Work Day, workforce members ditched their cars and rode their bikes to work – promoting the improvements we made for local cyclists as part of the works, including creating better local links, safer crossings and an improved route across the roundabout. We also took the opportunity to tidy up the cycle path outside the site compound by holding litter picks under the tunnel and along the old A556 and A5033.

Social value and community benefits include:

• Supporting, developing and inspiring apprentices with 285 apprentice work days on the project, and creating a short behind-the-scenes film providing insight into what it’s like to be an apprentice.
• Providing 56 hours of volunteering to local community initiatives such as the Children’s Adventure Farm Trust.
• Raising approx. £7,000 for a local community club, Knutsford Scouts Hut and Macmillan Cancer Trust.
• Building a disabled ramp for the local St Paul’s church.
• Undertaking STEM activities in local schools and involving children in a drawing competition of the new bridge.