THE first of two weekend closures of the M6 at junction 19 has been postponed for a week due to the recent cold snap.

In a significant milestone for its £43 million junction 19 upgrade at Tabley, Highways England was due to start installing bridge beams across the motorway on Friday, January 15.

It would have been the first of two successive weekend motorway closures affecting drivers in mid Cheshire and Knutsford.

However, last week’s plummeting temperatures – which affected concrete curing – reduced the amount of time available for finishing work on the support columns in the hard shoulder and central reservation, forcing the postponement of the bridge beams installation.

The two Friday night to Monday morning closures will now take place on the weekends beginning January 22 and 29, with an operation to crane 36 huge, 90-tonne bridge beams into place over the northbound and southbound carriageways.

Highways England is constructing a bridge over the M6 through the existing junction roundabout to improve traffic flow between the motorway and the A556 and reduce congestion around the roundabout itself.

The new bridge is set to open in the summer.

For more information about the project see highwaysengland.co.uk/our-work/north-west/m6-junction-19