A slip road from the A556 onto the westbound M56 in Cheshire is to remain closed until early December, Highways England has announced.

This is due to the roads agency bringing forward planned construction work and cancelling a second closure in February.

The road was closed at the end of September as part of work on a new £192m A556 link road between the M56 and M6.

Originally scheduled to re-open in October, the route has remained closed due to United Utilities needing more time to investigate a previously uncharted water pipe uncovered during bridge refurbishment.


Work on the new link road began in November and is planned to open in early 2017.

Jonathan Stokes, Project Manager at Highways England, said: "We would like to apologise to drivers for the extended closure of the slip road but given the delay whilst United Utilities dealt with the pipe we've brought forward some of our own work and won't need to close the slip road again in February which will actually reduce the overall closure period.

"The weather in February is likely to be far more challenging in terms of providing safe and predictable working conditions and opportunities so we're doing that work now."

(LM/CD)