This contract was awarded to Dowsett Engineering Construction Ltd and started in October 1968 and was completed in February 1971 at a cost of £5.8 million.

This 5¾ mile contract commenced at, and included the construction of, the Gildersome Interchange terminating at the M62/M1 intersection at Lofthouse. It also included the construction of the Tingley Interchange. The Gildersome Interchange forms a junction between the M62 and the existing A62 Leeds - Huddersfield road and also provides a link for the M621 Gildersome to Leeds Motorway. Tingley Interchange links the motorway to the A653 Leeds - Dewsbury road. The section between the Interchange and Leeds City Boundary was reconstructed under a separate contract with the West Riding County Council. Both Interchanges provide a connection with the Bradford - Wakefield road.

The line of the motorway on this section had been closed to avoid, as far as possible, good agricultural and building land, and in so doing had incorporated along its length an opencast coal site, a disused stone quarry and a colliery shale tip.

During earthwork operations at Gildersome in the areas of the southern roundabout on the Interchange, domestic refuse which had been deposited since ancient times had to be removed from the old Howden Clough Valley and the adjoining Hell Hole Valley and replaced with suitable material before the construction of the motorway embankments could proceed.

Again an interesting feature of this contract was the geotechnical work, which required special consideration during the first ten weeks of the Contract to locate faults and old mine workings along the line of the motorway and over 60,000 ft. of drilling was carried out to locate areas that were required to be stabilised before the construction of the embankments or bridges could commence.

The bulk excavation, involving some 3,000,000 cu. yd. was carried out by 14 Terex TS24 motorscrapers using D9 rippers on the mudstone and softer sandstones. The harder sandstones were excavated by 977 Traxcavators and D9 rippers. Maximum output from this plant reached 73,000 cu. yd. in one week. During the winter 1968/69, some 52,000 tons of clay, which was unsuitable for embankment construction, was transported to Sir A. McAlpine's contract at Scammonden and used in the construction of the dam and already referred to.

Another feature of the contract was that a section of the disused Gildersome Railway tunnel, which was 1¾ miles long and 90 ft. below the embankment had to be backfilled with some 30,000 cu. yds. of colliery waste.

The material used in the upper layers of the embankments consisted of the harder sandstone excavated from the cuttings or imported blast furnace slag or well burnt colliery shale, depending on availability. A total of 312,000 tons of crushed limestone imported from E Butler's quarry at Maltby was used as the sub-base.

Fifteen structures were constructed within the Contract but the Tingley Common Bridge which carries the A650 Trunk Road over the motorway was constructed as advanced works to provide continuity for the large volume of traffic using the Trunk Road. East Ardsley railway bridge was subcontracted to Holst Ltd.

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Lofthouse to Hopetown