M53 motorway

The M53 is a motorway on the Wirral Peninsula in north-west England. It links the Kingsway Tunnel at Wallasey with the A55 at Chester, running for almost 30 kilometres. The route passes close to Birkenhead, Bebington and Ellesmere Port before reaching the rural southern section. Part of it was once a separate road called the M531, built to serve the Vauxhall car plant. The motorway was planned in the 1960s to connect the Mersey tunnels with the A55 trunk road. Construction began in 1969 and finished in 1982, opening in stages. Lord Leverhulme opened the first section in 1972. A coach crash in 2023 caused two deaths and remains a notable incident. The M53 also marks a social divide between different parts of the Wirral. A full-sized replica of one of its bridges appeared in an art exhibition at Tate Britain in 2019. The motorway runs alongside railway lines in places and crosses two others. It narrows from three lanes to two before turning east towards Chester. The final stretch becomes the A55 North Wales Expressway at junction twelve.