Upgrade moves into testing phase
With construction finished, this week will see our project move into its next phase – testing and calibrating the new technology that helps road users.
You’ll notice cones and barriers starting to be removed overnight on 12 February, with four lanes open to traffic. There’s 15-miles of traffic management to remove, so this will take us several nights. All cones will be lifted between junctions 4 and 11 by 6am on 18 February.
When the traffic management is removed, the four lanes will remain at 60mph while the new technology, including stopped vehicle detection, is calibrated and commissioned. Our roadworks must be fully removed to allow for testing to be carried out. There are several additional measures in place to help keep you safe while we carry out these tests. These include:
- Limiting drivers to a maximum of 60mph between junctions 4 and 11.
- Keeping the temporary CCTV used during the roadworks in place alongside the new permanent CCTV installed as part of the upgrade. There will be 142 cameras in operation 24 hours a day, 7 days a week throughout the commissioning period.
- The dedicated free recovery service will also stay in place. There will be 10 vehicles in operation during this time, two HGV recovery units, four light vehicle recovery units and four recovery impact protection vehicles.
- Gantry signs will be turned on and operating, meaning variable speed limits can be used to smooth out traffic and tackle stop-start congestion. The Red X sign can also be used to close one or more lanes. The gantry signs are manually operated by the staff in our control room.
- Traffic officers will be patrolling to help road users.
- And if you get into difficulty you will be able to use one of 23 places to stop in an emergency, which includes 13 new emergency areas. There will be a place to stop in an emergency every 1.27 mile, on average. If you’re travelling at 60mph, you’ll reach a place to stop in an emergency on average every 70 seconds on the eastbound carriageway, and 75 seconds on the westbound carriageway.
With the fourth traffic lane open and in use the capacity on this vital route along the south coast between Portsmouth and Southampton will be boosted by a third.
If you’d like to know more about the main features of smart motorways, and advice and guidance on safer driving and what to do in an emergency, visit our new ‘Driving on motorways’ hub.
Transport select committee response:
On 12 January 2022 the Government’s response to the Transport Select Committee’s inquiry into the roll out and safety of smart motorways was published. It included a commitment to pause the rollout of future all lane running (ALR) smart motorway schemes until a full five years’ worth of safety and economic data is available from upgrades delivered before 2020. This will allow an informed decision to be made on next steps.
During the pause we will ensure current smart motorways without a permanent hard shoulder are equipped with best-in-class technology and resources to make them as safe as possible.
This will include investing £390 million to install more than 150 additional emergency areas so drivers have more places to stop if they get into difficulty. This will represent around a 50% increase in places to stop by 2025, giving drivers added reassurance.
Upgrade projects which are more than 50% complete will be completed and will open with all their new features. The M27 falls into that category. Leaving traffic management out during the pause would lead to significant disruption for road users.
We’ll be opening with radar Stopped Vehicle Detection technology in place, giving you reassurance. We’ll also be opening with the originally planned number of emergency areas, and more will be installed at a later date.
Surfacing work in June
We’ll also be continuing with surfacing work during June. We carry out this work overnight or at weekends to minimise the impact on road users.
We complete this work in sections, and the details of upcoming closures are listed below. All closures will be from 9pm until 6am the following morning.
Date
|
Junction
|
Location
|
7, 8, 9 & 10 June
|
Junctions 9 to 8 Junctions 9 to 11
|
Westbound carriageway Eastbound carriageway
|
9 & 10 June
|
Junction 7
|
Eastbound entry slip
|
11 & 12 June
|
Junctions 9 to 8 Junction 5
|
Westbound carriageway Eastbound entry slip
|
13, 14 & 15 June
|
Junctions 8 to 9 Junctions 11 to 9
|
Eastbound carriageway Westbound carriageway
|
13 to 17 June
|
Junction 5
|
Eastbound entry and exit slips
|
16 & 17 June
|
Junctions 9 to 11
|
Eastbound carriageway
|
16 to 24 & 27 to 30 June
|
Junctions 9 to 8
|
Westbound carriageway
|
20 to 26 June
|
Junctions 11 to 9
|
Westbound carriageway
|
29 & 30 June
|
Junctions 5 to 4
|
Westbound carriageway
|
All diversions will be clearly signposted. These dates may be subject to change due to operational requirements, or adverse weather conditions. Therefore, we advise road users to plan their journeys in advance. You can keep up to date by visiting our Traffic England website: www.trafficengland.com or by following our Twitter feed: @HighwaysSEAST.
Hamble bridge pollution control preparation work
We’ll soon be carrying out work on the M27 Hamble bridge to help reduce any pollution from the road surface being washed into local waterways. This work will comprise of some preparation work, which will include drainage and waterproofing to the bridge.
To do this safely, we’ll be temporarily putting narrow lanes back in between junction 8 and 9 on both sides of the M27 from 9.00pm 7 May 2022 until 6.00am 30 May 2022. There will also be a reduced speed limit of 50 mph through the narrow lanes. We’ll be working day and night to get this work completed as quickly as we can, and there will be over night full closures in place to provide safe working areas for the team.
We’ll be sure to monitor traffic flows during this time. We apologise in advance as the work may be noisy at times, but we’ll do our best to minimise this.
These works on the M27 Hamble bridge aren’t directly associated with our motorway upgrade scheme, but we’ve timed them to take place before the scheme is complete and while we have teams already in the area. This should reduce disruption on the network in the future.