M6 motorway upgrade now fully open

All four lanes on the 17-mile stretch between junction 13 at Stafford and 15 for Stoke-on-Trent are now open to traffic with the 70mph national speed limit restored along the stretch which carries on average 127,000 vehicles a day.

This follows a new fourth lane opening on the stretch earlier this year, followed by a period of system calibration with a 60mph speed limit.

Thanks to the upgrades, drivers can now use 26 new emergency areas if they need to stop in an emergency with a place to stop or leave the motorway every 0.99 miles on average.

The upgrade is the first to open with additional emergency areas – five in addition to the originally planned 21 – to give drivers more places to stop in an emergency.

To further enhance safety on all lane running motorways, national highways are continuing to roll out technology which will allow the detection of stopped vehicles.

The stopped vehicle detection (SVD) system automatically identifies stopped vehicles and provides an alert to control rooms.

Operators can then close lanes with a Red X signal, display speed limits and deploy traffic officers.

More details on the upgrade are available at: nationalhighways.co.uk/our-work/west-midlands/m6-junction-13-to-junction-15-smart-motorway/