M65 Construction Photos

How do you build a motorway? If you've ever wondered how it's done, or what goes on during the years it takes to build a new road, then here's a chance to see it first hand.

The project to build the M65 between junctions 1A (Bamber Bridge, south of Preston) and 3 (Riley Green, near Blackburn) ran from 1994 to 1997, and was documented with scores of aerial photographs, taken every three months while the works were happening. That's unusual enough; what's remarkable is that you can see the full archive of 466 photographs here, and search through them to see individual structures being built and construction processes taking place as the motorway evolves.

On this page you can search through the photographs and use a map view to see the layout of the scheme and the most-photographed viewpoints. If you don't know where to start, try the highlights. You can also get to grips with the history of completing the M65, and read about the photos themselves.

This map shows the whole length of the works seen in these photographs and labels all the structures and other roads around it.

Click one of the red markers to see all pictures taken from that viewpoint. The red markers show all the most-photographed views of the construction works. These are the places where you can find a whole series of pictures showing the construction of a particular feature. Not all the photographs are found on this map: there are 86 different viewpoints in the full set, of which only the most common appear here.

Scroll this map horizontally to see the whole map

Bamber Bridge roundabout, view south Terminal roundabout, view east Terminal roundabout, view north M6 interchange, view south M6 interchange, view east M6 interchange and Cuerden footbridge, view north M6 interchange, view west Cuerden embankment, view north A6 overbridge, view north A6 overbridge, view west View west from Tramway Lane underbridge M61 interchange and Brindle Road overbridge, view south M61 interchange, wide view north M61 interchange, view west Hill House Farm and Sandy Lane overbridges, view east Sandy Lane overbridge, view north View west from Marsh Lane to Sandy Lane Leeds-Liverpool Canal underbridge, view east Leeds-Liverpool Canal underbridge, view north View west from Leeds-Liverpool Canal underbridge to Sandy Lane View east from Brimmicroft overbridge to Riley Green Riley Green interchange, view north east Riley Green interchange, view south west Riley Green interchange, view west View east from Riley Green interchange to Stanworth rock cutting Stanworth rock cutting, view east Stanworth rock cutting, view west

In this section

What's new

A century of motorways

It's 100 years since the opening of the world's first motorway, the Autostrada from Milan to the Lakes.

Schrödinger’s speed limit

In 2022, Manchester City Council say they reduced the speed limit on the Mancunian Way to 30mph. But it’s not clear if they did. It’s not even clear if they can.

Sorry, wrong number

Road numbering is a system with clear rules. What happens when the people responsible for numbering roads don't follow them?

Share this page

Have you seen...

London's Forgotten Arterial Roads

The 1920s and 30s saw a huge roadbuilding boom in London's suburbs. Some of those roads are incredibly well known, but here are five Arterial Roads that have been almost completely forgotten.