The M60 is the UK's last publicly-funded motorway

That's how long it's taken to complete the 35-mile road which, after the M25, is only the second orbital motorway in Britain.

The Highways Agency hope it will ease traffic flow throughout the north-west of England. Motorists fear it may soon become as congested as its notorious cousin down south.

Motorways were in their infancy when the suggestion of building a motorway ring road around Manchester was first made.

That first section of road, opened all those decades ago, was the Barton Road Bridge, which crosses the Manchester ship canal, to the west of the city.

It was one of the first stretches of motorway built in Britain, and among local people, it caused a bit of a stir.

In the week before it opened, the public was invited to walk across its half mile length, and admire the view of industrial Manchester from its 75ft height. Ten thousand people took the opportunity to do so.

Jobs boost

In following years, new sections were added to the ring road.

It began to stretch north towards Oldham and south towards Stockport, but its progress was often hindered by lack of funds, endless public enquiries, and frequent changes in national policy on motorway construction.

In the 1980s, all new work was suspended, while the Barton Bridge section was rebuilt. Designed originally to carry 50 thousand vehicles a day, it was already carrying nearly twice that number. Today it carries 140 thousand vehicles a day.

Work on the final ten mile section which runs from the north to the east of Greater Manchester began seven years ago and has cost more than �270m. Local politicians hope it will bring a boost to some of the most derelict areas of East Manchester.

Congestion expected

It is already set to bring 3,000 jobs to the area, and it's hoped that figure will at least treble within the first few years of the road opening.

But among those motorists who anticipate using the M60 frequently, there is a fatalistic belief that the newly-completed road will quickly become as congested as the M25.

On those sections of the road completed years ago, lengthy jams are already a regular feature.

And even if the new section enjoys a trouble-free start, any environmentalist will soon point out what might be called the Catch-22 law of motoring, which says that if a section if road is free-flowing, allowing the fast and efficient movement of traffic, then more people will acquire cars and will use that section of road, until it too is - more often than not - jammed solid.

The Highways Agency, which built the M60, will measure its success only partly on the volume of traffic which uses the new road.

For them, an equally important factor will be the amount of traffic which is removed from surrounding urban routes.

Whatever happens, the completion of the motorway marks the end of an era for the Highways Agency, as it's the last publicly-funded motorway building project in Britain. Any future road-building, for example the Birmingham relief road, will be funded privately.