Switch Island

Switch Island
Dunnings Bridge Road looking towards Ormskirk and showing the characteristic flat and isolated landscape
Location
Sefton, Merseyside
Coordinates	53°29′37″N 2°57′10″W / 53.4936°N 2.9527°W / 53.4936; -2.9527
Roads at junction	M57 M58 A59 A5036 A5758
Construction
Opened	1930s (small roundabout), 2010s (current formation)
Maintained by	National Highways

Switch Island

Location in Merseyside

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Switch Island

Location in UK motorway network

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Switch Island is a major road junction near Aintree in Merseyside, England, in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton. The junction is at the western terminus of both the M57 and M58 motorways, which converge on the A59 trunk road, the north-south route from Liverpool. The junction is also the terminus of the A5036, a road which serves the Port of Liverpool, and the A5758 which serves as a bypass for the village of Thornton.

For the period between the 1930s and mid 1970s, the island was a simple roundabout formation until the arrival of the motorways. The junction was significantly expanded in 1980 and was initially planned to be an interim layout, however subsequent additions and amendments throughout the years, separate to the original intentions, has transformed it from the original roundabout design and then-envisaged grade separated junction.

The junction carries up to 100,000 vehicles a day with continued improvements being a priority for National Highways. The through route of the dual carriageway is not the A59 south to the A59 north, but from the A5036 south to the A59 north, effectively resulting in two motorways and the port road feeding onto the A59 through route. Switch Island has been described as one of England’s busiest motorway junctions^[1] and is prone to traffic collisions due to its extensive utilisation and inadequate layout.^[2]