Highways England has awarded its M60 J18 Simister Island improvement contract to Costain.

The company has been appointed as the Delivery Integration Partner to design and build the Simister Island interchange improvement project, which is a £138 million scheme.

Highways England, responsible for the plans to improve the interchange – which serves the M60, M66 and M62 – has appointed Costain and partner Jacobs to design and manage the construction of the junction improvement.


The Simister Island interchange is one of the busiest motorway junctions in the North West, used by around 90,000 vehicles each day. The junction struggles with high volumes of traffic, far above what it was designed for, and as a result suffers from congestion and poor journey time reliability. The scheme will improve the journey experience for users of this section of network by reducing peak congestion and providing faster average speeds, delivering more reliable journeys and reducing journey times overall.

A public consultation on the scheme is now being planned for this winter, and a planning application is due to be submitted next year. If the plans are approved by the Government then work on the project could start by spring 2025.