Why the M6 took so long to re-open after Friday's overturned lorry

A lorry ploughed through the central reservation between J39 B6261 (Shap) to J40 A66 (Penrith) at around 11.20am on Friday.

The vehicle had tipped its trailer causing a massive fuel and hydraulic fluid spillage.

READ MORE: M6 Northbound closed after lorry overturns in Cumbria

Cumbria police arrived on the scene to investigate and also relieve traffic. 

The northbound section was closed overnight between J39 and J40 and an earlier collision also meant lane 3 (of 3) was closed on the southbound carriageway between J40 and J39.

Many motorists took to social media to vent their frustrations at the closure and the delays.

Director of Cumbria road surfacing experts firm Dinsdale Contractors got the call around 1.30pm to say that road repairs were urgently needed.

"I can understand people's frustrations as it was chaos," said 39-year-old Joe Matthew Dinsdale.

"It was an enormous job as there was fuel and hydraulic fluid running both across and down all lanes of the motorway.

"I want people to understand that it's not an easy decision to make. It's the choice between closing off the road and causing delays and frustration or opening up the lanes and risking people's safety. 

"A simple road sweeper wouldn't have done as when I got there the road surface was slippy to stand on like black ice. The fuels had created a film over the top that couldn't be cleaned.

"The only option was to mill out the full area of around 3120 metres2 and reinstate once all the gullies were cleared of any contamination.

"In an emergency situation, sometimes it's the sheer logistics involved as it depends on the resources we have on the day. 

"We had to cross hire haulage as well as using our own tippers to make it all happen.

"With us getting the call at 1:30pm we managed to get everything on site for 4.30pm despite the traffic in every direction being disrupted.

"Our vehicles struggled to get to the scene with a cattle wagon overturned on one route and another incident on another road."

When the contractors finally got there, they got the road planed out, removed all the contaminated material and reinstated the entire area including the surface, new rib line, white lines and road studs.

The road was completed and ready to open at 3am on Saturday morning (April 13).

Joe added: "The disruption with the road being closed was phenomenal and we apologise for the inconvenience.

"Hopefully people can see the efforts all parties had to put into this unfortunate circumstance and understand that there’s a huge amount of work involved and different industries that are needed for a job of this calibre.

"Massive thanks to all involved for a cracking result and a safe and quick turnaround to get the motorway moving again."