As millions of people across the UK embark on summer holidays, drivers are being warned about significant disruptions due to over 220 miles of roadworks planned across the country’s motorway network.
With major routes affected by ongoing construction, traffic delays are expected to reach a peak during August, posing challenges for those travelling to popular destinations.
With National Highways working to install more than 130 emergency areas on smart motorways as part of a £390 million project, swathes of Britain’s busiest roads will see 50mph average speed checks put in place.
Edmund King, president of The AA, told The Times that the situation was “a nightmare for drivers”.
“Of course we support putting in new emergency areas which, technically, should make smart motorways safer. But we did argue, from the start, that they shouldn’t open without the adequate number of areas anyway.”
These roads – known as all-lane-running smart motorways – do not have a hard shoulder, allowing vehicles to drive in all lanes. The system was introduced as a cheaper alternative to building more lanes and widening existing motorways, with a section of the M25 in Hertfordshire opened as the country’s first smart motorway in 2014.
However, there have been long-standing safety concerns after fatal incidents in which vehicles stopped in live lanes were hit from behind. One campaigner described the highways as “death traps”, while Claire Mercer, whose husband Jason died along with Alexandru Murgeanu when they were struck by a lorry after stopping on the M1 near Sheffield in June 2019, said any delays in reinstalling hard shoulders “continue to put thousands of lives at risk”.
The planned roadworks will impact several key arteries, including:
M6: Lane closures between Junctions 13 and 15 near Stafford will likely lead to congestion for those heading to the North West.
M1: Works between Junctions 13 and 16 are set to cause delays for drivers traveling through Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire.
M25: one of the busiest motorways, the M25 will experience roadworks near Junction 15, affecting journeys around Greater London and beyond.
A1(M): Significant disruptions are expected between Junctions 34 and 36 near Doncaster, impacting travel to and from Scotland.
“Safety is our number one priority and these improvements will help keep more road users safer for the long term, said Duncan Smith, executive director of operations at National Highways, told The Times, who confirmed that temporary speed limits will be removed when the work is finished – by spring 2025.
Last weekend – the first weekend that all UK schools had broken up for the summer holidays – saw congestion on the M25, M5 and parts of the M4.
It was dubbed the “weekend of woe” by the RAC, who predicted 13.8 million drivers would take to the road on leisure trips to make it the second-busiest summer getaway since 2015, only behind the 2022 weekend when 18.8 million travellers headed out in their cars amid a heatwave following two years of Covid lockdowns.
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