M61 motorway
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| Route information | |
| Length: | 20.0 mi (32.2 km) |
| Existed: | 1969 – present |
| History: | Constructed 1969–1970 |
| Major junctions | |
| South end: | Worsley |
  J1 → M60 motorway   J9 → M65 motorway  M6 motorway |
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| North end: | Preston |
| Location | |
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Primary destinations: |
Manchester, Bolton, Wigan, Chorley, Preston, Southport |
| Road network | |
The M61 is a motorway in North West England. It runs from the M60 motorway northwest of Manchester and heads northwest past Bolton and Chorley to join the M6 just north of the junction between the M6 and M65 motorways to the south of Preston.
Perhaps the most distinguishing section of the M61 is to be found at the southern end at the Worsley Braided Interchange between junctions 1 and 3. This stretch of the road on the approach to the terminus with the M60 ring road is a collection of sliproads and overpass tunnels providing free-flowing access to and from the following:
This complicated junction earns a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for having the most traffic lanes side by side (17), spread across several parallel carriageways at Linnyshaw. The Google Maps location of this incidence is [1]
On its opening on 17 December 1970, it was already known locally as "Spaghetti Junction", 17 months before the opening of Gravelly Hill Interchange in Birmingham, nowadays most associated with that name in Britain.
The M61 has one service station: Rivington services (formerly Bolton West services), located between Junctions 6 and 8 (as Junction 7 was never built). This motorway service area was used in the filming of The Services, a pilot episode for the Farnworth-born comedian Peter Kay series That Peter Kay Thing, a spoof documentary of a day in the life of the services staff.
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