Severe delays are reported on the M6 following a collision which temporarily blocked the motorway.
Emergency services say they had to halt traffic on the southbound carriageway due to an incident.
It was released just before 6pm, but long tailbacks had built up between junction 29 (for the M65) and junction 28 (for Leyland).
Queues also stretched back to and along the eastbound carriageway of the M55 near Broughton.
It is not known if there have been any serious injuries.