WIREDGOV

The programme should be completed by the autumn with signs along the rest of the M6 in Cumbria between junctions 37 and 45 north of Carlisle up to the border with Scotland.
The work has been carried out by AmeyMouchel - the Highways Agency’s main contractor for north Lancashire and Cumbria.
The large yellow-lettering-on-blue-background signs include information which helps the Highways Agency’s Traffic Officer Service and emergency services to pinpoint where people are when they call their control rooms or a recovery service.   This is important for people using mobile ‘phones which do not automatically give location information as the hard shoulder emergency roadside telephones do.
Lettering and numbering on the signs tell motorway users which motorway they are driving on, the direction they are travelling in and exactly where they are on the motorway.    The signs include:
The number of the motorway.
A letter A or B telling the Highways Agency or the emergency services which direction the driver is travelling in (or the letters J, K, L and M on slip roads)
A figure underneath the letter representing the distance in kilometres -  usually from the start of the motorway.The signs have been positioned prominently on the motorway verge near the hard shoulder and will help road users by showing them their exact position if they need to telephone emergency services, recovery or the Highways Agency's Regional Control Centre. They complement special but much smaller marker posts which appear every 100 yards along the hard shoulder and also give location information and point to the nearest emergency roadside telephone (ERT).Where possible the signs are located every 500 yards and almost 500 are being deployed in north Lancashire and Cumbria. Bob Baldwin, Highways Agency Area Performance Manager for north Lancashire and Cumbria, said, "With many people using mobile phones to call for assistance these days, rather than the motorway emergency phones, it can be difficult to find a caller's exact location. If road users can tell us what is on the sign nearest to them on the motorway, we can work out where they are on the M55 or M6 if they breakdown or need to report an incident.
"The new signs will mean the emergency services and Highways Agency Traffic Officers can respond to incidents more quickly and reduce the risk of secondary incidents, congestion and delay to other road users." And Jamie Carr, Regional Operations Manager in charge of the North West Traffic Officer Service, said, "We welcome the new location signs. We know from experience that some people don't always know which motorway they are on let alone which junctions they are near. Anything which helps Traffic Officers to more quickly locate someone in trouble will be useful in helping us to combat congestion."