The M61 motorway is a motorway in North West England

North West England

North West England, informally known as The North West, is one of the nine official regions of England.North West England had a 2006 estimated population of 6,853,201 the third most populated region after London and the South East...

. It runs from the M60 motorway

M60 motorway

The M60 motorway, or Manchester Orbital, is an orbital motorway circling Greater Manchester, a metropolitan county in North West England. It passes through all Greater Manchester's metropolitan boroughs except for Wigan and Bolton...

 northwest of Manchester

Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

 and heads northwest past Bolton and Chorley

Chorley

Chorley is a market town in Lancashire, in North West England. It is the largest settlement in the Borough of Chorley. The town's wealth came principally from the cotton industry...

 to join the M6

M6 motorway

The M6 motorway runs from junction 19 of the M1 at the Catthorpe Interchange, near Rugby via Birmingham then heads north, passing Stoke-on-Trent, Manchester, Preston, Carlisle and terminating at the Gretna junction . Here, just short of the Scottish border it becomes the A74 which continues to...

 just north of the junction between the M6

M6 motorway

The M6 motorway runs from junction 19 of the M1 at the Catthorpe Interchange, near Rugby via Birmingham then heads north, passing Stoke-on-Trent, Manchester, Preston, Carlisle and terminating at the Gretna junction . Here, just short of the Scottish border it becomes the A74 which continues to...

 and M65 motorway

M65 motorway

The M65 is a motorway in Lancashire, England. It runs from just south of Preston through the major junction of the M6 and M61 motorways, east past Darwen, Blackburn, Accrington, Burnley, Nelson and ends at Colne.-History:...

s to the south of Preston.

Worsley Braided Interchange

Perhaps the most distinguishing section of the M61 is to be found at the southern end at the Worsley Braided Interchange between Junctions 1 and 3. This stretch of the road on the approach to the terminus with the M60 ring road is a collection of myriad sliproads and overpass tunnels providing free-flowing access to and from the following:

• The A580 (East Lancashire Road)
  A580 road
  The A580 is a primary A road in England that connects Walton, near Liverpool and Salford, near Manchester and known officially as Liverpool-East Lancashire Road. Locally, the road is shortened to the "East Lancs". The road was designed and built to provide better access to the Port of Liverpool for...
  
  .
• The motorway spur road to and from the A666
  A666 road
  The A666 is a major road in Greater Manchester and Lancashire, England. Known as Manchester Road, Bolton Road, or Blackburn Road, depending on which area it is in, it runs from its junction with A6 and A580 at the Irlams o' th' Height boundary with Pendlebury near Manchester, through Pendlebury,...
  
  .
• Both the clockwise and the anti-clockwise carriageways of the M60.
• Both the northbound and the southbound carriageways of the M61.

This complicated junction earns a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for having the most traffic lanes side by side (17), spread across several parallel carriageways.
The Google Maps location of this incidence is http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=worsley&hl=en&ll=53.531974,-2.383014&spn=0.003424,0.00736&hnear=Worsley,+Manchester,+Salford,+United+Kingdom&gl=uk&sqi=2&t=h&z=17&vpsrc=6|here

Media

The M61 has one service station: Rivington services (formerly Bolton West services), located between Junctions 6 and 8 (as Junction 7 was never built). This motorway service area was used in the filming of The Services, a pilot episode for the Farnworth

Farnworth

Farnworth is within the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton in Greater Manchester, England. It is located southeast of Bolton, 6 miles south-west of Bury , and northwest of Manchester....

-born comedian Peter Kay

Peter Kay

Peter John Kay is an English comedian, writer, actor, director and producer. His work includes That Peter Kay Thing , Phoenix Nights , Max and Paddy's Road to Nowhere , Britain's Got the Pop Factor... and other independent productions which have included two sell out tours.-Early career:Peter Kay...

 series That Peter Kay Thing, a spoof documentary of a day in the life of the services staff.

Junctions

Data
from driver location signs

Driver location signs

Driver location signs are English highway route markers, first introduced in 2003, that complement distance marker posts. Both types of marker post display the distances from a nominal start point in kilometres...

 are used to provide distance information.

M61 Motorway
km	Northbound exits	Junction	Southbound exits
	The NORTH The North The North may refer to:* a geographical section of the world * the wealthy and technologically advanced nations of the world, as contrasted with the nations comprising the South... , Lancaster Lancaster, Lancashire Lancaster is the county town of Lancashire, England. It is situated on the River Lune and has a population of 45,952. Lancaster is a constituent settlement of the wider City of Lancaster, local government district which has a population of 133,914 and encompasses several outlying towns, including...  M6	M6, J30	Start of motorway
33.2	Blackburn, Burnley Burnley Burnley is a market town in the Burnley borough of Lancashire, England, with a population of around 73,500. It lies north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River Brun.... , Preston (South) M65	J9	Blackburn, Burnley, Preston (South) M65
27.6	Chorley, Whittle-le-Woods Whittle-le-Woods Whittle-le-Woods is a village and civil parish of the Borough of Chorley in Lancashire, England. Residents of Whittle-le-Woods are called Whittlers....  A674 (A6)	J8	Chorley, Whittle-le-Woods A674 (A6)
	Rivington services	Services	Rivington services
15.4	Horwich Horwich Horwich is a town and civil parish within the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, in Greater Manchester, England. It is southeast of Chorley, northwest of Bolton and northwest from the city of Manchester. It lies at the southern edge of the West Pennine Moors with the M61 motorway close to the...  (A673) Chorley (A6)	J6	Bolton (West), Horwich (A673)
11.2	Wigan, Bolton, Westhoughton A58 A58 road The A58 is a major road in northern England that runs between Prescot, Merseyside and Wetherby, West Yorkshire.It runs north east from Prescot on the outskirts of Liverpool via St Helens, Ashton-in-Makerfield, Hindley, Westhoughton, Bolton, Bury, Heywood, Rochdale and Littleborough then over the...	J5	Bolton, Westhoughton A58
8.2	Atherton, Leigh A6	J4	Walkden A6
4.5	No access	J3	Bolton (A666)
	Bolton (A666)	J2	Manchester (Central) (A580)
	Start of motorway	J1	Oldham Oldham Oldham is a large town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amid the Pennines on elevated ground between the rivers Irk and Medlock, south-southeast of Rochdale, and northeast of the city of Manchester... , Rochdale Rochdale Rochdale is a large market town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amongst the foothills of the Pennines on the River Roch, north-northwest of Oldham, and north-northeast of the city of Manchester. Rochdale is surrounded by several smaller settlements which together form the Metropolitan...  M60 (East) M60 motorway The M60 motorway, or Manchester Orbital, is an orbital motorway circling Greater Manchester, a metropolitan county in North West England. It passes through all Greater Manchester's metropolitan boroughs except for Wigan and Bolton...   Leeds Leeds Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...  (M62) M62 motorway The M62 motorway is a west–east trans-Pennine motorway in Northern England, connecting the cities of Liverpool and Hull via Manchester and Leeds. The road also forms part of the unsigned Euroroutes E20 and E22...   Salford, Sale Sale, Greater Manchester Sale is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford, in Greater Manchester, England. Historically part of Cheshire, the town lies on flat ground on the south bank of the River Mersey, south of Stretford, northeast of Altrincham, and southwest of the city of Manchester...  M60 (South) M60 motorway The M60 motorway, or Manchester Orbital, is an orbital motorway circling Greater Manchester, a metropolitan county in North West England. It passes through all Greater Manchester's metropolitan boroughs except for Wigan and Bolton...   Manchester Airport (M56) M56 motorway The M56 Motorway, also known as the North Cheshire motorway, is in Cheshire and Greater Manchester, England. It runs from Junction 4 of the M60 to Dunkirk, Cheshire and is in length. It is often busy with long-distance commuter traffic towards North Wales...

External links

• CBRD Motorway Database - M61
• Lancashire County Council - Historic Highways - M61
• The Motorway Archive - M61