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Quote: "Thank you for your feedback regarding your journey through J11 on the M62 on the 3rd of February.

The ramp metering (traffic lights on the slip road) at J11 on the M62 have been switched off for some time due to several faults. The site was re-commissioned on Monday the 24th and put back into service and has been carefully monitored for correct operation since.

I am sorry you experienced delay to your journey. Although we have experienced high volumes of traffic during the week beginning Monday the 24th that have caused problems in this area, Our ability to count vehicles travelling across the stop line shows the ramp metering system has not reduced the number of vehicles travelling down the slip road onto the main carriage way.

However, we have made some fine tuning adjustments to the site in order to optimise it performance. We are continuing to monitor the sites performance and the traffic patterns it experiences in order to best manage the converging traffic flows. From other sites we know it can take up to two weeks for the system and road users to adjust, which can lead to some additional congestion, and adjustment if necessary.

Briefly the ramp metering system works by trying to break up the joining slip road traffic into small groups. This is done to minimise the disruption merging traffic causes to the main carriage way and to help speed up the recovery time when the main carriage way traffic is brought to a stand still.

This is balanced against traffic building up on roads adjacent to the motorway and queuing on the slip road, releasing lager blocks on to the main carriage way to over come this.

If overall traffic volumes in the area exceed the capacity of the main carriage way traffic will eventually come a stand still. This will cause traffic to queue up on the slip road and adjacent local roads. However as the main carriage way starts to flow again ramp metering will greatly reduce the time it takes to recover.

We do regularly monitor all our ramp metering sites and will continue to do so as traffic flows in the area fluctuate over the next few weeks. Please be assured that we will not allow the system to cause unnecessary delays and that we take every available option to reduce delays to road users.

I am happy to discuss further, either by email or telephone, which is most convenient for you and would value your continued feedback about this site.

Regards

Russell Pinchen
Highways Agency | Temple Quay House | 2 The Square, Temple Quay | Bristol | BS1 6HA
Tel: +44 (0) 117 3726039 | Fax: + 44 (0) 117 3728447 | Mobile: + 44 (0) 7787 891 039
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