A £317 million junction on the M25 will close for more than two days later this month, potentially causing massive pile-ups across the expansive traffic artery.
National Highways said people should only travel on Britain’s busiest motorway if “absolutely necessary” during closures set to take place over 57 hours one weekend this month.
Construction crews will carry out works on M25 between junctions 10 and 11 from the evening of Friday, March 15, to Monday, March 18, causing a ripple effect across the traffic network.
The closure – the first of its kind to ever grace the motorway – will last nearly three full days and impact potentially hundreds of thousands of people. Up to 200,000 motorists that weekend could end up in congestion, with stretches of road closed between critical destinations.
National Highways has estimated that travellers driving around the motorway – which encircles London – could find journeys to Gatwick and Heathrow airports and Channel ferry ports disrupted.
Between 4,000 and 6,000 vehicles travel in each direction on the junctions every weekend per hour between 10am and 9pm, with many people entering the UK capital for events like concerts.
The disruptive works have been long-planned, with Jonathan Wade, the National Highways project lead, stating they were “months” in the works.
He warned people planning to drive on the M25 this weekend to only use the traffic artery if their journey is “absolutely necessary”.
He said: “Drivers should only use the M25 if their journey is absolutely necessary. We have spent months planning for these closures and making sure there are diversion routes in place, but there will still be heavy congestion and delays.”
Highways England has told people to allow additional time for their journeys and, if necessary, make alternate travel arrangements.
The closure is needed to allow site work to progress in order to meet the summer 2025 deadline for the completion of the project.
Its main aims are to reduce congestion, allow capacity for excess of 300,000 vehicles to use it daily, and to provide better connections.
The local diversion route will be in place for both directions
- Junction 10 – Junction 11: North bound A3 to Painshill Junction, A245 towards Woking, and then A320 to M25 Junction 11.
- Junction 11 – Junction 10: A320 south towards Woking, A245 towards Byfleet and Painshill junction, Southbound A3 to Junction 10.
The latest closures along the M25 will allow construction crews to demolish a bridge and install a gantry on the section between Wisley and Chertsey.
And they won’t be the last, as there are more works scheduled on the motorway this year.The multi-million-pound project is expected to require five more closures between March and September 2024.
The dates of the next closures have not yet been specified.
