A £490,000 Highways England project to provide safer, smoother journeys along the M6 in Cumbria between Carlisle and the border with Scotland got underway this week.

Both the northbound and southbound carriageways between junction 44 and junction 45 will benefit from work over the next few weeks to smooth out carriageway wear and tear, renew road markings and replace road studs.

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Highways England project manager Peter Gee said: “This is important maintenance to ensure drivers can continue to enjoy safe, smooth and reliable journeys along this section of the M6.  We have arranged the work to ensure it causes as little disruption to drivers’ journeys as possible although we do appreciate that road users like to know what work is going on when lanes are closed.”

During the day, between 6am and 8pm there will be single lane closures of either lane 1 or lane 3 while overnight work – between 8pm and 6am each night - will involve closing 2 lanes of the carriageway with either lanes 1 and 2 or lanes 2 and 3 closed at any one time.

A 50mph speed limit will be in place through the road works and at times overnight when work is taken place near an entry or exit slip road the slip road will be closed with a clearly-signed diversion in place.

The project started on Monday and should be completed by Monday  June 1 with no work taking place at all over the late spring bank holiday weekend (Thursday May 21   to Monday 25 May) when Highways England lifts or completes dozens of road works across the country to give drivers and their families smoother holiday journeys.