M62: All lanes reopen after major HGV collision and spillage

A collision took place involving two HGVs at around 11am yesterday, Tuesday.

The incident saw traffic held between junctions 11 and 12, at Birchwood, of the M62 for around 20 minutes, before allowing motorists to pass through one lane of traffic.

The incident took place at approximately 11am on Tuesday (Image: Andrew Gaskell)

It was announced that three lanes would remain closed into the evening and overnight due to the nature of the incident and the clean-up work required.

A spillage took place due to the collision, which saw the road require treatment works before it was safe to reopen all of the lanes.

At its height, the delays were causing congestion of up to eight miles, bolting on an hour or more to the expected journey time for some motorists.

Images from the scene showed that serious damage was inflicted upon the cabin of one HGV, while the other vehicle appeared to have jackknifed, with the cabin facing the opposite direction to the cargo.

Severe damage was inflicted upon one of the vehicles' cabins (Image: Andrew Gaskell)

Both the fire and rescue service, as well as the ambulance service, were in attendance at the scene of the collision.

National Highways North West announced this morning, Wednesday, that emergency resurfacing works had been completed after yesterday's collision and subsequent diesel spill.

The organisation said that traffic is now flowing freely through the M62.