WORK will soon be completed on motorway safety fencing where a Burnley teenager was knocked down and killed three years ago.

Contractors working on behalf of the Highways Agency have been raising the level of barriers along Rosegrove Lane, near the railway station, where 15-year-old Harrison Hartley was killed in March 2007.

An inquest heard that Harrison, of Harling Street, Burnley, who had been playing football beside the motorway beforehand with friends, had scaled the boundary wall.

The Hameldon Community College pupil had urged pals to play ‘chicken’ on the motorway but they refused, watching as he crossed the eastbound and westbound carriageways.

But as he was returning across the central reservation ready to cross the westbound lanes a second time, he appeared to stumble.

He fell into the path of a Volkswagen Polo and was dealt a glancing blow by the vehicle.

He was taken to Burnley General Hospital but later transferred to a specialist unit at Pendlebury, where he died two days later from his injuries.

Later his family issued warnings to other teenagers regarding playing on the motorway and a series of safety lessons were held in local schools.

A Highways Agency spokesman told planners in a report: “Following an inquest into a fatality, and as a result of comments made by the coroner, together with other incidents of a similar nature, the fence is required to discourage trespass on to the motorway from adjacent land.”

Highways officials have said the safety fencing will not obstruct any existing access and will blend in with barriers at the nearby Motorpoint site.