Catthorpe Interchange work 'on schedule'

The work to dismantle an old viaduct which has closed one of the UK's busiest motorway junctions over the weekend is running on schedule, the Highways Agency has said.

Demolition at the Catthorpe interchange, where the M6, M1 and A14 meet on the border of Warwickshire and Leicestershire, began on Friday night.

Officials said it was due to reopen "on target" on Sunday at 12:00 GMT.

The work is seeing the viaduct replaced by a new bridge.

Engineers are dismantling the 3,500-tonne structure, which carried M6 southbound traffic over the M1.

It means the M1 is shut in both directions at junction 19 and southbound traffic on the M6 is not able to join the M1 at the interchange.

The agency said so far there had been minor traffic problems at the junction, up to about a 10-minute delay during peak time earlier.

'Traffic levels lower'

Drivers are being urged to allow extra time for their journeys or to avoid the area if they can.

Highways officials particularly warned football fans travelling for FA Cup games to find alternative ways of travelling.

Ivan Marriott, from the Highways Agency, said the organisation had thought carefully about when to do the work.

"The problem is there is never going to be a weekend when nothing's actually happening," he said.

"Obviously we chose a weekend where traffic levels are lower. There's also less commercial traffic around as well and we did deliberately choose to avoid the busy Christmas period and also the new year.

"We've also been in contact with the FA and other organisations to try and get the message over that the closures were over this weekend."

Full details of the closures can be found on the Highways Agency website.