New River Ribble bridge to ease Preston’s M6 congestion remains an ambition

Looking out at the Bullnose onto the stretch of the River Ribble which would need to be crossed by any new bridge Pic: Sonia Bashir

A new river crossing over the River Ribble to ease Preston’s M6 gridlock nightmares remains firmly on the horizon – despite the government’s talk of renewed focused on big infrastructure projects.

Although the newly published Lancashire Growth Plan doesn’t directly reference the bottle-neck easing idea the new link over the river between Penwortham and the Docks does remain a long-held ambition.

Cabinet member for growth and economic development at Lancashire County Council, county councillor Aidy Riggott, told Blog Preston he would “personally like to see it achieved.”

The city regularly sees extreme congestion when the M6 experiences crashes on the stretch from Samlesbury to Broughton – in either direction – and a new bridge over the River Ribble has been discussed for decades as a way to help solve the problems.

The construction of Edith Rigby Way, the Penwortham bypass and the part dualling of the A582 have been steps towards being able to move the new bridge forward.

County Cllr Riggott said: “I would say that a new crossing over the Ribble is like many other projects. They’ll be part of our strategic plan of what we would like to secure our pipeline for having conversations with government, but those kind of projects require significant investment by government to help us to realise something like that.

“That kind of project is well beyond a local authority, a combined authority to deliver for it. But that’s an ambition we would hold that has been in Lancashire for a long time and will continue to be, I think, until it is done.

“I personally would like to see that achieved too, somebody who lives in central Lancashire. I fully understand and recognise those challenges we face when the M6 does have issues. It’s blocked, the traffic is diverted off it, so I think it is something we would like to see long-term.

“There’s many other projects too, like East West Connectivity, lots of other things. Investment in Lancashire’s infrastructure is something we are keen on. We will work with government and partners to unlock because we can all see the benefits we live here, our businesses feel it, our residents feel it.

“So if there’s a way to doing that, we will do it. The answer to any of these programmes is how do we unlock investment from government into Lancashire? The answer is always yes. How do we do it? We stand ready to do it with you.”

Mr Riggott’s comments came as Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner was in Preston last week to reaffirm her commitment to Devolution and pushing down large funding and investment project deals for Mayoral authorities.

The last official update on any new River Ribble crossing was given in July 2023, when the Preston Western Distributor road opened linking the Docks to the M55 on the western side of the city.

In 2017 a new bridge crossing was costed at around £250million.

There have also been calls for a new M6 junction between Junction 32 at Broughton and Junction 33 at Garstang – but National Highways recently ruled out to Blog Preston any additional junction on the 12-mile stretch.

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