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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to ask why the M62 is shut?

74 replies

cjt110 · 02/03/2018 16:06

Not as stupid a question as it sounds.

I am reading the local news page and can see it's shut. Can see footage of empty carrigeways (around junction 23) but no reason so to speak for it being closed.

I assume it's been shut because of safety for those travelling over Rishworth and to avoid more people being stranded.

I cant see that anyone is still stranded?

OP posts:
upthesky · 02/03/2018 16:10

80mph winds and snow drifts.

falsepriest · 02/03/2018 16:13

This tropical heatwave we're having up in Manchester

Original poster
cjt110 · 02/03/2018 16:19

So it's precautionary upthesky as opposed to people currently being stranded?

C'mon.... Don't be so tight. Share our the heatwave over t'hill falsepriest Grin

I live just near Junction 24 so I can understand some of what has battered the '62.

I just feel for the poor farm in the middle Sad

OP posts:
vandrew4 · 02/03/2018 16:21

There's up to 90 MPH winds and massive snow drifts. The 40 or so lorries stranded on it still won't be helping matters.

BitOutOfPractice · 02/03/2018 16:22

Presumably to avoid this happening Confused

Original poster
cjt110 · 02/03/2018 16:23

There's still trucks stranded vandrew4 Those poor people. I know the local news is reporting the army assisting etc. I didnt realise there are still people stuck :(

OP posts:
Original poster
cjt110 · 02/03/2018 16:23

BitOutOfPractice Yes so precautionary? There were 3500 stuck until the snow gates were opened and 200 stuck overnight I believe

OP posts:
Niceandwarmandhot · 02/03/2018 16:24

That's the highest bit of motorway in the U.K., right? The winds alone must make it dangerous.

The farmer who lives between the two carriageways must be feeling v isolated this week!

When I was a child, my brother's friend's father was the reservoir keeper; they lived in a little cottage just by the reservoir (come off at j22 and follow the road over the Pennines towards rishworth) and we used to eat at rishworth lodge a lot (think that's flats now!). so beautiful up there, but v bleak!

Original poster
cjt110 · 02/03/2018 16:26

Niceandwarmandhot Yes, I'd forgotten that fact. I know the place you mean but cant think of the name - over to Milnrow way?

OP posts:
Niceandwarmandhot · 02/03/2018 16:28

One junction on from that - milnrow and shaw is j21. This is simply a winding road over the Pennines that eventually takes you to rishworth, then sowerby bridge, then ultimately Halifax (well, ultimately for us, as that was where my grandma lived!). Will see if I can find a pic

Niceandwarmandhot · 02/03/2018 16:30

This sort of thing!

www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-56050700.html

Part of me thinks I'd love to live there. Part of me thinks I'd hate to have a 20 minute drive to Waitrose every time I forgot something!!!

Original poster
cjt110 · 02/03/2018 16:31

Niceandwarmandhot The A640 road? Yes I love houses like that but yes, it must be so desolate. I live just near Ainley top, go 5 mins down the road and you're on the A635 over the tops and it's very desolate.

OP posts:
Cassimin · 02/03/2018 16:32

Don't know if it's where you are talking about but the news says there's a lorry on fire near Rochdale.

Original poster
cjt110 · 02/03/2018 16:34

Cassimin IT might be the other side. The M62 has been shut all day and has been declared shut indefinitely. Kept hearing funny noises yesterday afternoon and the local news site have videos of Chinooks flying over the M62 to assist those stranded. Must have been that I could hear!

OP posts:
Niceandwarmandhot · 02/03/2018 16:36

It must be awful to be stranded like that - I'd be worrying I'd run out of petrol or car battery.

Cjt - you're not far from my uncle in that case! Love driving up to see family around there.

There's a fantastic pub on that road, it used to be "the old bore", and now it's "the boothwood inn" - it's just before rishworth school (if you're coming from the Halifax side) or just after it (if you're coming from the motorway), well worth a trip when the snow fecks off Smile

abigailsnan · 02/03/2018 16:41

The farmhouse has been there before the motorway so I can't see them being bothered they have probably dealt with worse conditions over the years.

CuriousaboutSamphire · 02/03/2018 16:41

There was a multi vehicle pile up yesterday and today the winds are still over 90mph and it will remain closed between J20 and 24 indefinitely!

Tis all over the news... footage of the pile up is really horrid and current conditions are bad enough for a police press conference!

Original poster
cjt110 · 02/03/2018 16:42

My grandma once got stranded on the M1 due to snow, before mobile phones, with nowt but a cabbage in the boot. She was an insulin dependent diabetic too. Was rescued by the police and taken to the services. My Mum tells me that from then on, any long journey was accompanied by an array of food and a midpoint stop - even though the journey was only 3 hours. It would take them 5 just because of the stop off at Leicester!

OP posts:
Original poster
cjt110 · 02/03/2018 16:43

CuriousaboutSamphire I've only heard snippets on the news and what I've read on the local news online. Didnt realise there was a pile up :(

OP posts:
Niceandwarmandhot · 02/03/2018 16:43

It's tenanted though, abigailsnan - there was an interview with the tenant farmer in the papers not so long ago. He hasn't been there all that long. Long enough to know what to get from the weather up there though, I guess!!

CuriousaboutSamphire · 02/03/2018 16:50

FAKE FOOTAGE I am so sorry, I went to look for the clip for you cjt

Then I realised how gullible I had been - it was shared by someone I consider to be sensible Blush It was American and nothing to do with the M62.

www.express.co.uk/news/uk/926213/UK-weather-forecast-M62-crash-video-M66-snow-Facebook

But there is a lot of info and I think the Examiner had a timeline.

Can you tell I have family up there? Smile

TattyCat · 02/03/2018 16:50

I'd imagine the farmer in the middle of the M62 will not be able to sleep for the lack of traffic noise!!!

scarletmonkey · 02/03/2018 16:51

I live round here, the snow was very bad yesterday, but the wind is what's bad today. The motorway is very very exposed in places, cutting through the moors.

The conditions are bad up there in winter at the best of times, but from what I understand, the high winds are (or were) blowing the snow off the moors across the carriageway so anyone driving of them was experiencing a white out blizzard conditions, with the snow piling up on the carriageway faster than they can keep it clear.
I can't ever recall it being closed like this...

AnyFucker · 02/03/2018 16:52

There was a 16 car pile up and people stranded overnight in potentially fatal temperatures

It is closed to prevent a recurrence and is virtually impassable because of the weather. Much like the Snake Pass and similar.