South East emergency area retrofit programme
We’re building additional emergency areas to our all lane running smart motorways in the South East.
The safety and confidence of people travelling on England’s motorways and major A-roads is our highest priority.
We’ve been listening to your concerns and have developed a programme to create additional emergency areas on sections of all lane running (ALR) smart motorway across the country.
What are we doing in the South East?
In the South East additional emergency areas are being created across the following motorways:
- The M20 between junctions 3 and 5 in Kent – four new emergency areas
- The M25 between junctions 5 and 7 in Surrey & Kent – nine new emergency areas
- The M25 between junctions 23 and 27 in Hertfordshire & Essex – fifteen new emergency areas
- The M3 between junctions 2 and 4A in Surrey & Hampshire – ten new emergency areas
- The M4 between junctions 8/9 and 12 in Berkshire – twelve new emergency areas
- The M27 between junctions 4 and 11 in Hampshire – two new emergency areas
The exact number of emergency areas on each section of motorway may change. This is because we cannot rule out finding unexpected conditions at any individual location after constructions begins.
We’ll deliver this work in phases and aim to start in 2024. We’ll provide more information on each of our programmes in due course.
Where can I find out more information?
Find out more about our national emergency area retrofit programme.
Email the project team directly at EAretrofit@nationalhighways.co.uk.
Latest updates
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30 May 2024
Work has started
While we install each new emergency area you'll see the inside lane on the four-lane motorways is closed. Lanes two, three and four remain open with a 50mph speed limit in place.
Temporary CCTV cameras will monitor the carriageway and 24-hour free recovery will be in operation.
Some of the new emergency areas (EAs) are quite close together, so we're keeping the inside lane closed from one EA to the next as it reduces lane changes, helps keep traffic flowing and ultimately reduces the risk of any incidents.
Update
We've installed traffic management on four of our five south east projects:
- M25 junctions 5 to 7
- M25 junctions 23 to 27
- M3 M25 junctions 2 to 4a
- M4 M25 junctions 10 to 12
We're currently removing existing barriers and excavating topsoil. This is done by a smaller team of people - which accounts for why you see fewer of our workforce right now. In a few weeks you will see the whole workforce working on the road.
Project information
Emergency areas provide a place to stop in an emergency if drivers can't exit the motorway or stop at a motorway service area.
They are marked by blue signs featuring an orange SOS telephone symbol. Each is coloured orange and is around the same length as a football pitch. They’re positioned at regular intervals, providing somewhere safe to stop and have phones linked directly to our control rooms.
Read our advice about driving on motorways, including what to do in an emergency.
Our investment in new emergency areas is all designed to help road users feel safe and be even safer on our roads. It's part of other improvements we're making, including:
- technology, such as stopped vehicle detection
- better and more signs
- more information about smart motorways online and in an updated Highway Code
Through all the work we are doing, we’re determined to:
- further reduce the number of casualties on our high-speed road network
- improve public confidence in our smart motorways
continue to build and operate one of the safest and best performing road networks in the world.
Documents
Traffic information
Information about scheduled roadworks and events on our motorways and major roads.X
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