M62 closure today: road updates as snow leaves drivers stranded near Rochdale

North-West road bosses said that at one point, congestion on the M62 eastbound between Rochdale and Saddleworth was eight miles long.
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Traffic was brought to a standstill on the M62 between Greater Manchester and Yorkshire in the early hours of Friday morning due to the heavy snow in the area.

Drivers were trapped for up to eight hours according to Highways England, after snow blanketed the M62 between junctions 22 and 20 in the night. There are still delays this morning, one of five lanes remains closed from J21 at Milnrow to J22, and people have been told not to drive unless absolutely necessary, with the route being impacted between junctions 21 and 24.

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National Highways confirmed the road had been gritted last night and said this morning: “Lane closures have been implemented between J20 and J24 in both directions to ensure traffic is using lanes that have been treated and have remained relatively clear from snow.

“Prior to lane closures being installed, traffic was slow due to the weather and driving conditions and as traffic attempted to use the overtaking lanes they were becoming stuck. The decision to close lanes is to ensure traffic continues to keep moving.”

GMP tweeted that they had faced issues in the early hours with drivers using the hard shoulder which is against the law.

Palwasha Afzal, 23, began her journey from Manchester to Huddersfield at midnight - and was still on the motorway nine hours later.

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The drive usually takes around an hour but she has been caught in the motorway weather chaos. The credit hire consultant said: “I’m still travelling on the motorway, travelling from Manchester to Huddersfield, we left at 12am and we’re currently still here.

“The motorway is horrific. There’s lorries broken down, cars broken down, there’s lorries spinned on the motorway it’s horrible.

“We’ve been here for nine hours. Honestly, I’m drained. Luckily my husband is driving not me.”

One stranded motorist told BBC 5 Live: “The M62 was shut so we went to go on the A-roads and got completely stuck. We started nodding off in the car. Next thing we know and mountain rescue were knocking on the window.”

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Another motorist tweeted he took six hours to move 15 miles in the early hours.

By early afternoon, motorists reported traffic was moving fairly well again on the M62 though there is still a lot of snow on the side roads around Huddersfield.

The A62 Huddersfield Road is closed in both directions between Platting Road and Pennine Way and other cross-Pennine routes are also impacted, including the A672 Ripponden Road, A640 Huddersfield Road, A635 Holmfirth Road, A57 Snake Pass and A628 Woodhead Pass.

TFGM said some disruption was expected on Manchester buses today especially in Oldham but services were expected to run; check their website for the latest.

A Met Office yellow warning for snow in the region remains in place til noon on Friday. See your hourly forecast here.

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