Motorists in Cumbria will be the first to drive on a "recycled" motorway.

Engineers are working to improve a stretch of the M6 at Killington, near Sedbergh.

But instead of quarrying more material, they are digging out the existing motorway and recycling it.

Project manager Mike Thompson says it the first example of its kind in Britain of "motorway recycling".

'Improved technology'

Mr Thompson said: "For the first time, the material dug out during the highways maintenance process will be recycled and put back in.

"In the past we have had to dump this material in landfill sites and replace it with wholly new material.

"We will take off the lower levels off the carriageway, that is then regraded and reused as the road surface.

"In the past it was cheaper to dump material in landfill sites, but with improved technology it is now cost-effective and better for the environment to renew road surfaces in this way."