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Secrets of The Motorway - M53
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 เม.ย. 2023
- #motorway #infrastructure #m53
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The M53 is an interesting one... It's a game of two halves with the first being over engineered junctions and large open spaces, with the second being the complete opposite. I'll explain all in the video.
There's lots for us to be getting on with this week... grade 2 listed water towers, RAF bases, Vauxhall... and of course the usual stories of motorway projects that didn't quite go to plan. Have you heard of the M531 motorway... No, I hadn't either but it turns out it used to be part of the M53.
In this series we aim to explore what our motorway network is hiding. As we drive along at 70mph..ish...we simply just wouldn't be aware of what we're missing. This series aims to uncover some of the hidden secrets our motorways have to offer.
![ยอดนักสืบจิ๋วโคนัน เดอะมูฟวี่ 3 | พ่อมดคนสุดท้ายแห่งศตวรรษ [พากย์ไทย]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/jwUBkJALqpo/mqdefault.jpg)
This guy deserves a silver play button
Wont be long with how the subscriber count has been going.
Caden I would like your comment, but as it stands it's at 55 (like the A55) I cant. Also my name also prevents it too.
Heres a thumbs up instead 👍
Edit: he's at 329 now, I'm fine liking now 🤣
You bet!
John is still working for his Girl Guide clean hands badge.
So entertaining and full of brilliant info
Although not a motorway, an A55 episode would be wicked sweet awesome. Incredible history and engineering has gone involved, particularly driving through Conwy County… Conwy tunnel, Penmaenbach, Penmaenmawr and Pen Y Clip etc.
It's an almost motorway isn't it, I thought I read somewhere it has weird, weird speed limits too, I just know it as that road I take to get from the border to where I want to go in North Wales
Makes you wonder why it hasn't become the A55(M)
Perhaps my Great-great-greatx10-grandfather, John Dodson, swam in the Shrewsbury Canal (if people did such things, then). He emigrated to the English Colonies in North America in the 1770's. Thank you, Jon.
@@SquidgyPixel too many places where the road has been crammed in and there's no space to have anything other than a roundabout.
Parts of the A55 replaced existing roads which were the only way to access certain villages and towns. Making it a motorway would have prevented bikes, for example, to use it.
Some parts of the road DO have motorway restrictions such as no bikes, but these can't be listed as motorways for the reasons mentioned. As such they were an anomaly where not an A road and not a motorway, and therefore NSL or motorway speed limits don't exist.
This is the reason why parts of the A55 specifically have 70mph signs, not NSL.
think that's all correct, but someone might be able to fill in the blanks :-)
I believe the Moreton Spur (Junction 2/2a) was originally meant to continue to a bridge across the River Dee from West Kirby to Mostyn. My dad after working on the construction of the Wallasey Tunnel was part of the project for the Bridge. The bridge was cancelled after complications getting to bedrock in the Dee, after tests they found the expense to build the stanchions for the bridge would be too great so it was shelved. After the bridge the M53 would then connect with the A55 at Rhault in North Wales. It would have provided a quick link between North Wales, Mostyn and Liverpool Docks.
I remember reading about that years ago from Holywell area towards Mostyn a cross the Dee to the Wirral to j2 M53
Fantastic tidbit of information, sounds like it's difficult to find online. It should be recorded somewhere beyond the Googlesphere - similar to information I learnt from a granddaughter of someone who worked on the Porthkerry viaduct but I failed to record in time and ended up forgetting the detail...
I have seen another video that gone into a fair bit of detail about the M53 and the Ellesmere port bypass. It also suggested the link between J2 and north wales across the river Dee
If you consider the Upton bypass will have probably been conceived at the time of the M53, and the bridge across the Dee is a well known fact locally, then the trajectory of the "stump" on Greasby roundabout is literally perfect for a road travelling to Holywell/Greenfield via a bridge over the Dee.
Of course this is all theory as I have never seen plans in any form for it, but it is definitely a logical reason as to the scale of the spur at Junction 2. Liverpool to North Wales direct via Wirral without having to go round the world to get there!!
Having said that, the spur at junction 2 is now a useful slip road for the masses of rush hour traffic exiting the motorway into the bottleneck that follows 😂
Given the small size of Moreton and Upton (my village), the better option would have been to make the junction on Ford Road/Woodchurch Road, next to the station, wher the bridge crosses the M53. But given the railway parallel to the carriageway, this was impossible. I've always thought the spur was a second choice for that reason.
I remember when I was a child, junction 2 was even more pointless, the motorway just ended in a big earth bank under the bridge, with just two sliproads to the local road.
It wasn't until 1991 they started constructing the Upton bypass and put the roundabout in.
Been waiting for this one as it’s “my motorway”. My Grandad worked on it and I’ve been up and down it more time than I care to imagine.
As always another great video.
When the M53 was being built my dad took me, my brother and mum out for a day to visit some friends in Wales, coming back the weather had turned to quite thick fog, we drove down the A552 towards the under construction junction 3, the flyover part was incomplete so we had to use the roundabout, the visibilty was terrible by this stage, only a few yards, we entered the roundabout and dad tried to find the exit we needed, he missed and we had to go round again, once again he missed the exit and once again, round we went, at this attempt we tried to pick out a landmark to use should we miss the exit - we did. In total we spent the best part of half an hour going round and round, eventually dad found the exit. Dad's mood, which was not good, was not helped by the rest of us laughing hysterically. Happy days,
"No, It's just a waste of money"🤣🤣🤣🤣The way you said it, made me laugh.
Having worked in or around Ellesmere Port can confirm it's an absolute dogs dinner of a motorway. The north section is proper motorway, wide gently curving mostly, but once you get closer to Ellesmere Port is basically a dual carriageway with turn off after turn off. Thankfully the junction at Cheshire Oaks got redesigned which improved the end of the M53.
From working on motorways for over 20 years.... all your episodes are extremely exciting episodes!... dry witty humorous sarchasm goes a long way
SarCHASM
Sarcasm*
Thanks John great video about the M53 as a kid me and my mates would play on it while it was being built. Namely junction 2 and the Moreton spur. Often being chased around by the security bods. One time we got a bulldozer started didn't know how to stop it and accidentally drove it into the river fender.
My mates and I had almost identical experiences on the building site of junction 3!
The locations and framing of your pieces to camera, are sir, most wonderful. Beauty within brutality.
I particularly enjoy the hidden giggles that you don't bother to point out.
It makes one feel worthy of enjoying your work.
I don’t want any smeggin’ toast. Not now, not tomorrow, not ever.
Been on the edge of my seat since the mention in the M56 video
Very informative and entertaining. Great piece of detective work with the British Geological Survey Map @ 3:21
Ah the You Bet theme at the end - classic - one of the best Saturday Night programmes ever made. Beats all the singing/dancing talent show crap we're subjected to these days!
Arguably a bit disconnected from the subject matter - but, on balance, no excuse is required for a banger like that.
Really enjoying your channel Jon. I think I speak for a lot of people when I say your production standard, and dedication to what is after all an un-glamorous subject, is much appreciated! Your videos have gone from strength to strength.
I think we can now safely conclude that Jon is deliberately trolling us with the 'Manchester Shipping Canal' :)
Great vid, explains why the m53 goes from being a decent motorway for the first part to a complete basket case where it met the m531 👍
Is it just me, but I follow the route on goggle maps as John's talking to get the most out of the videos. 😅
Great suggestion!
I do the same!
I have an LG wing, the second screen comes in useful for these videos 😂
If you are researching, scipting, recording, editing and uploading each of these episodes within a week, then hats off to you sir!
Thanks, it's pretty much that yeah.
About 25 years ago I was chatting to fairly senior navy chap. I made some throw away comment about not understanding why the M53 had been built as a motorway rather than a much less expensive dual carriageway. He told me there had been a cold war plan for the Americans to ship everything they had into the docks on both sides of the Mersey and then transport tanks, troops, etc in two parallel movements on M53 and M62 across to ports on the east coast if it had all kicked off.
The M53/M531 situation is replicated (still) in Northern Ireland where the M2 meets the M22; here, the M2 was supposed to head north; the Ballymena Bypass, which is separate, therefore takes the number M2 but the Antrim-Magherafelt expressway, which is not separate, is numbered M22 (and then A6 where they didn’t build full junctions). You can see clearly, west of the Northern Irish M2 J7, where the carriageways split exactly as with the M53.
Thanks John for this much awaited video about the M53.
I was a local school lad when it was built. The road layout at junction 4 the Clatterbridge Hospital interchange changed quite dramatically, with roads being realigned and some closed.
Before the motorway was opened to traffic, there was a sponsored walk using the south bound carriageway between J4 and J5 Vauxhall supplied a lot of cars which they parked at intervals in case anyone got into difficulty.
I have never known the M53 to get very busy with traffic in the many years of using it. Although it is 10 years or more since I last used it.
Once again thanks for all the work you put in to these videos.
It jams up every day Northbound between J7 and J5, around 4 - 5:30pm, sometimes reaching as far as J10.
You must be on Helsby hill at the end there….
It gets bad at peak times. Really backs up
It’s generally fine, but try getting to Cheshire Oaks on a Saturday!
Youre kidding right? Its always jammed up at rush hours and has been that way for at least 20 or so years.
I have happy memories of driving four family members to a wedding in Bebbington years ago. Having got onto the M531 (as it was then), I was told by one of my back-seat drivers that I was going on the wrong motorway as I continued north-west along the M53 after the road changed name. As we were already late (not my fault!), tensions got a bit heated but we arrived at the church with a couple of minutes to spare. It is amazing the trivia that comes back that you thought you had forgotten.
My weekly dose of my 'guilty pleasure'. Thanks Jon, as always.... Brilliant
Thanks mate!
the description of the users of the abandoned road.... brilliant 🤣😂
Production and script slicker than the oil slicks in the Mersey!
Forever answering questions nobody asks, but everyone wants to know. I like this channel.
You totally NEED to do the A55. It's so nearly motorway and full of so many upgrades, major engineering works and minor EU-funded straightened bits. It would be an opus.
yes I was thinking this!
he needs to do A55
Finally, the M53 episode I've been waiting for, and you did not disappoint. Now looking forward to the Mersey Tunnels episode and hopefully an A55 episode in the future.
The level of research that you must put into each episode is ridiculous, and once again the dry witted humour/ insults is spot on.
My dad worked on building the last section, and I can remember him taking me there as a kid before it was opened and getting to have a walk around on it.
Home Motorway. Jon, Junction 2, I was always under the impression they where talking about a crossing over the River Dee from North of West Kirkby to Talacre and this Junction would have connected. Exceelent Video as ever.
Bloody brilliant guy and original documentary series. Should have many more subscribers
01:26 As a local, I can tell you categorically that Junction 2 actually does serve a very useful and convenient purpose. It connects the M53 to a vital section of the A551 running between Leasowe and Arrowe Park, through Moreton and Upton, which also connects to all the major A and B roads running through all of northwest Wirral. Junction 2 and 2a provides a vital convenient and fast bypass-like connection between Upton, Moreton, and all those northwest Wirral routes to the M53.
Furthermore, the original idea was for the M53 to continue further west beyond Junction 2a to West Kirby and along a bridge over the River Dee estuary to Mostyn in North Wales. However, the initial surveys of the River Dee estuary found that it would be too expensive to construct the bridge. So the idea was abandoned before it even reached the planning stage, hence why no plans exist. Which is a shame, because had it been able to be realised it would have massively reduced the journey distance and time between Liverpool, Wirral and North Wales.
Brilliant !!!!
As somebody who has used the M53 for years some great info, thank you.
I can't believe you didn't mention the karting track at hooton park that has a gun tower on it from when it was a runway.
I got told off by some snobby couple recently for walking down the Leverhulme Avenues as apparently you need an access permit to walk on their private lanes despite the fact several footpaths cross it and there is no fencing or anything to really suggest access to walkers is restricted or otherwise. I just laughed and wished them good afternoon
What a wonderful series. As a chap who spent his formative years building sections of motorway infrastructure this please my inner geek immensely! Superb work sir.
One thing I learned from this video is that engineering in Merseyside is top notch 👌
When the M53 was built, Bromborough golf course lost a couple of holes when it was rerouted away from the Leverhulme estate. Wicked sweet awesome as ever.
I think in my opinion, the m53 should go all the way from the east side of the Kingsway Tunnel in Liverpool all the way to Holyhead, which is the terminus of the a55
Unfortunately the A55 doesn't quite meet motorway standards.
Where the M53 and M531 were stitched together, they actually built the flyover to carry the M53 over the northbound M531 to it's planned alignment to the west of Ellesmere Port. There are aerial pictures of it from 1997 if you do a bit of Googling, but it was demolished before the year 2000 aerial image available on Google Earth.
There's still talk about the bridge being reinstated and a dual carriageway meeting up with the m56. When done the road section between 8&10 being demolished.
Fast forward to 1.15 th-cam.com/video/HNHYDN3sd1s/w-d-xo.html
Yes it was then too of course at the time though.
My local motorway. I know the water tower as Bowater’s, before it became Bridgewater Paper, as my Grandad used to drive the massive rolls of news print all around the country to the newspaper print rooms. We nearly ended up with a junction 10A or 9A because the owners of Cheshire Oaks looked into getting a slip road installed directly off the motorway into the shopping village. I believe it was put before Parliament, committee not the actual house, but was back heeled due to the costs involved. Well everything road related is back heeled because of costs isn’t it!
Hello Jon, how the devil are you, have you had a good week?
Junction 2a was updated many years ago (about 25??). The original junction 2a stopped at the slip roads on to Moreton Road. The Upton bypass was then built and the motorway then extended underneath Moreton Road and terminating at the roundabout.
@Ed Ouena Moreton Rd put on to a bridge (a parallel one was built IIRC before excavating out the soil and putting both into operation) which was still useful for many years for budding graffiti artists 😅
Great video. Made even better by finishing on top of Helsby Hill. Made even betterer at 10.39 by showing our first house we moved into in 1986. Thanks ♥
Dear John,
I live in the USA, so I can't see any of these sights, but I do find your videos EXTREMELY informative, if I ever visit the UK I will look out for some of these sights. Stay safe out there, and God bless you.
Thanks a lot for watching, I really appreciate the over seas viewers as there's very little incentive for you to stick around :D
@@AutoShenanigans :D
🤣 Funniest episode I've seen so far.
The M53 wasn't even supposed to go past Ellesmere Port, but a lengthy lobbying process and a huge amount of money managed to persuade the company building it to make a spur from Junction 5 to run to the docks (junction 8). The original route was abandoned shortly after the decicion was made, but not before building of the spur had started, that's why junction 5 was moved East to link to the A41 instead of linking with the A550. There was a bridge over the Northbound carriageway linking up to the ghost slip road of the Southbound at junction 5.
Another oddity is the stretch between Junctions 8 and 7 of the Southbound carriageway. The distance between the end of the on slip and the start of the off slip white paint is around 27 feet according to Google Maps's measuring tool.
Informative, fascinating and interesting as always 💜💜💜💜💜
His tone of voice & jokes & puns makes me chuckle. Even though his voice is at near 1 tone level
They did build the overbridge at the J4/5 ghost sliproads, but they demolished it never having been used.
Excellent production again Jon, cheers 👍
A local told me the Bidston viaduct was constructed by Cammel Lairds the ship builders. Instead of being made from reinforced concrete it was made from riveted steel like a ships hull. That's why it wasn't strong enough over time.
That's kind of ironic if true... the Autostrada viaduct that collapsed in Genoa a couple of years ago was built from concrete, and they rebuilt it as a steel structure from the Fincantieri shipyard in Genoa... the same place that built and later scrapped the Costa Concordia...
Thanks Jon for another tongue twisting account of the organic development of our motorway network. As always the grand plan I.E. the Wirral spine from the new Wallasey Tunnel to the M6 opening up the new industrial plants around Elsmere Port was broken up into a series of chunks subjected to local planning delays/ budget cutbacks and plenty of wasted expenditure! On the positive side the M53 does work especially for all those going to Cheshire Oaks!!
Sunday afternoon has improved!
Thanks John.
Fantastic work, Jon! I have been waiting for your M53 video since I subbed at 200 subscribers, and you exceeded my already high expectations! This is my local motorway and I loved seeing and hearing all these new things I'd never known before. Now I know what that piece of broken old concrete is in Eastham that I used to rag my Vauxhall Nova up and down on Saturday night. And the route of what could have been the rest of the M53 south! It's interesting to see on those aerial photographs that space seems to have been left in the fields to still maybe build the true M53 one day. There are some aircraft hangar-type buildings, just like the ones you showed, on the Deeside Industrial Estate adjacent to the A494. A boy in my school said that j2 was for the motorway to go over to North Wales. I think that's just a wishful rumour, though. Great videography, Jon. Thank you!
Another great video to watch on a Sunday.I use M53 quite often from Wrexham to Cheshire Oaks,Ellesmere port ,Wallasey and Liverpool its a good motorway. A mixture of 2 and 3 lane carriageways. so thanks for a good video and have very good week what ever you get up too, Oh! I know you be looking out for anther motorway. take care mate I see you soon.
Thanks Jon. A couple of slight corrections : It's the Manchester Ship Canal, not Shipping Canal. And the Shropshire Union Canal goes to Wolverhampton, not Shrewsbury.
8:08 I can't believe people would dump matresses at the side of the road.
I don't know how they sleep at night.
Lolol how is this not the top comment??
You win the comments.
Love it, one of my favourite TH-cam channels!! Keep up the good work
Thank you for another class video. It's what Sundays are for.
Thanks for this upload on my birthday as well! Much appreciated
You git, you made it too interesting. I just spent 25 minutes looking up disused roads, hangers and a water tower on google earth.
I would never have known about any of this except for your vid! Cheers!
Thanks for watching... once that curiosity sets in all time ceases to exist.
Yes thank you the past week has been good, rounded off nicely with your video. Again MANY THANKS.
MY favourite exciting series! good job john
Really enjoy your outros. Nice pick this week.
Another brilliant episode. Very interesting. Well done😊 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
You bet end credits! Gosh that brings me back to my young spotty days! Cracking video as always 👍👍
Another exciting edition! For people like me with borderline autism and a lifelong obsession with weird oddities of our road network that ive had to subdue or research on my own since childhood.... this channel is a godsend!!
Another really good video, well done. All your videos are really informative and surprisingly interesting!
Interesting, nice one John 👌
JON: Your presentation style makes the mundane absolutely fascinating!! 🤩
Another great episode, we are heading that way tomorrow, so will give us some things to look out for. Thanks.
Love this channel so much. Xx
Great video and also great you've informed me about the Hooton Park Trust. I'll be over there on the next open day, many thanks.
You will find that the Newcastle Central Motorway says "hold my beer" to the M53's reusing of slip roads. 3 miles of motorway squeezed into 1 - only really safe when they close it for the Great North Run! And you also have the joy of joining the motorway from the wrong side of the road. Only junction 17 of the A(1)M onto the A1139 Eastbound does the same. Happy to be proved wrong!
Another fascinating And Informative Video Jon.
Thank you John for making these videos they are knowledge for me of roads I didn’t know about
Struck by how I am old enough for the paper mill to have become history in my lifetime. With a small group from college, I visited the News International print works at Wapping one night and saw the big reels of paper being delivered as we were walked through the printing process at the plant. Dad was a programmer and I studied computing so knew where things were going but never thought about where the paper was coming from further back up the line, nor the knock on effect digital media would have.
The road at the end of junction two was not built until years later, which was called the Upton bypass this was built in two different phases.
CONNGRATS ON REACHING 90K!
Excellent video, and I like the “You Bet” theme at the end!
I still dont know why I watch these but they are great, my worry is whats going to happen when you run out of motorways ?
Great video. All the best 🇬🇧.
Another brilliant and factual video John, I really enjoy all your videos, thank you so much for your research and knowledge
Thank you John. Wonderful view from Helsby Hill 👌 Maybe, once you finish with motorways, some future videos on national monuments?
Thanks for another cracking vlog 🎉
Not really got anything to comment that's useful but it helps the algorithm I hear.
Well done on another great video.
Love this channel!
Another wicked, sweet, awesome video, my hunch would be the M6 next, then into Scotland
Been waiting.. and it's a great one!
PS did you pinch the alloys off that SAAB?
I would love you to do a two-minute end to end video, would do the place justice
It’s his Saab 😂
@@Dan23_7 That's the joke.
Had to work out where you were at the end of the video. You're a top of Helsby Crag!
another great episode john always put together so well.
Cheers mate, appreciate that. hope you are well
As a Worcester resident I drive through these a lot and I love them. They're so much kinder on my eyes I feel as well as the advantages you have mentioned. I really hope they switch them all to red. Weiredly there is just one on ts own on the A443 just as you leave Worcester, whereas all the others on the road are the old style.
Thank you for another brilliant episode, I used to spend some time up in that area, in another 'work life' role that sadly ended almost twenty years ago.
You've explained some of the odd things that I observed at the time, the railway networks are the province of Jago H and Geoff M?!
Superb video, I grew up in and around the junction 2 area.
Great, thanks for watching!
We need a secrets of the roadways as a series once these are done. Would love to see facts around major roads such as A66 and A1 etc… some real scenic routes too for your drone shots in some parts of the country
I second this. It's a significantly bigger filming project and something Jon would likely need to do full time. Unsure what he does for a day job but TH-cam would need to pay well enough for such a thing as each road would end up being 3-4 parts long (especially roads like the A1, A47, A5, A12, A3, A9 etc)
Another cracking episode!
Intresting video as always, especially since I’ve driven down the M53 for the first time this weekend
Great video John, very interesting as always, can't believe someone would dump a classic Saab 😂👍👌
John your the best, thanks from OZ.