The M66 starts at the Simister Island, a junction with the M60 and M62, and heads north as a continuation of the M60 as a three-lane dual carriageway.

It passes the eastern edge of Whitefield, through junction 3, goes underneath the East Lancashire Railway and enters the suburbs of Bury.

It reduces to two lanes at junction 2 and then climbs onto an elevated section, passing through a post war housing estate.

Construction then began on the southern section of the Bury bypass (junctions 4 to 3) in February 1973 with this opening in August 1975.

Each motorway in England requires that a statutory instrument be published, detailing the route of the road, before it can be built.