Motorists face “severe delays” on what is expected to be the busiest August bank holiday in almost a decade.
The M5 has more than 30 miles of tailbacks between Bristol and Taunton, Somerset, as people travel south for the weekend.
Traffic monitoring site Inrix shows travel time between junction J16 (The M4 interchange) and J20 (Clevedon) is about 80 minutes.
A National Highways spokesperson said: “Severe delays. Due to the sheer volume of traffic it is taking road users over an hour longer than normal to travel on this section of motorway.”
Meanwhile, RAC Breakdown spokesperson Alice Simpson said: “With the end of the school holidays fast approaching it seems day trips will be the main cause of traffic this weekend, so for many drivers it could be a case of ‘day trip delays’.”
New research from the RAC shows the weekend is due to be the busiest August Bank Holiday in nine years with an estimated 19.2 million leisure journeys taken by car.
The breakdown service is expecting the M5 to be “one of the worst roads for delays in the country” on both Friday and Saturday, specifically southbound between J15 and J23, as well northbound between J25 and J15 on Monday with returning traffic.