A THREE mile stretch of M60 will close overnight for three days to allow road crews to repair damaged barriers sustained in a lorry crash on Wednesday.

The clockwise carriageway on the M60 will shut overnight this weekend, between junctions 12 and 15, to allow the repair work to take place.

But one lane will remain closed during the day on Saturday, between junctions 12 and 13, to allow concrete used in the repairs to set.

The overnight work will take place between 10pm and 6am, from Friday evening to Monday morning, to reduce disruption to motorists.

Khalid El-Rayes, Project Manager at Highways England, said: “The collision caused a significant amount of damage to the barrier and gantry base so we’ve decided to postpone the repairs until the weekend to reduce the impact on drivers.

“We'll need to close part of the motorway this weekend for the repairs and we’ll also carry out construction work on the smart motorway scheme at the same time so that we can get as much work done as possible during the closures.”

Contractors for Highways England will repair a 25-metre (82ft) section of safety barrier, as well as the base for an overhead gantry, after they were struck by a lorry just before 7am on Wednesday morning.

Resurfacing work has already been completed on the exit slip road on the clockwise carriageway at junction 13 near Worsley after a large amount of diesel from the lorry leaked onto the motorway.

All of the lanes on the motorway are due to be fully open as normal by 6am on Monday morning.

The road is part of Highways England's plans to created Smart Motorways, expected to be completed towards the end of the year.

The project has seen road closures and temporary 50mph speed limits in place between junction eight of the M60 and junction 20 of the M62 since early 2014.

Once completed, it is expected to cost more than £200m and will give authorities greater control over speed and traffic flow over specific sections of road.