Transport in Preston Transport in Preston Preston is a city in Lancashire, around North-west of Manchester. The Preston By-pass was the first part of the M6 Motorway, the longest motorway in the country. It was made a motorway in 1958, being the first motorway in the United Kingdom. It is now the stretch between Junction 29 (A6 and M65, Bamber Bridge) and Junction 1 of the M55 (A6 Preston North), with four intermediate junctions – J30, J31, J31A and J32. The other motorway within the city is the M55 (Preston - Blackpool), and it is also served by the M65 (Preston - East
M6 motorway to the edge of the Lake District with a short stretch within the national park boundaries and then passes Carlisle on its way to Gretna, before the motorway becomes the A74(M) a few hundred metres (yards) short of the Scottish border. The first section of the motorway and the first motorway in the country was the Preston By-pass. It was built by Tarmac Construction and opened by the Prime Minister Harold Macmillan on 5 December 1958. In January 1959 the Preston by-pass was closed because of rapid surface deterioration over a stretch of "due to water freezing and then thawing".