Worst roadwork delays for decade could cause bank holiday travel misery

The worst motorway roadwork delays for almost a decade are set to cause travel misery for millions[1] of drivers making their bank holiday getaways. Motorway roadworks across England are at their most disruptive for nine years[2], according to official data analysed by The Telegraph. A third of roadwork projects in 2024 so far were described by National Highways as having a “moderate” or “severe” impact on traffic, meaning they cause delays of 10 minutes or more to motorists.

This is the same proportion recorded in 2023, the latest full year for which data is available and the highest since current records began in 2015.

‘Projects are carefully planned to minimise disruption’

At least four motorway hotspots are expected to see delays of more than half an hour, with severe disruption expected on the M5 north of Tewkesbury, the M6 in Birmingham, the M62 by Howden and M1 in Leeds. It comes after the RAC estimated that 19.2 million leisure trips by car will be made across the UK between Friday and Monday – the highest since the company began monitoring the weekend’s traffic nine years ago. After Friday, which was set to be the busiest day for travel, the worst times for traffic jams were likely to be between 10am and 1pm on Saturday, transport analytics company Inrix warned.

National Highways, which manages motorways and major A roads in England, insisted that roadworks were “carefully planned to minimise disruption and keep the country moving”. Duncan Smith, its executive director of operations, said: “Safety is our number one priority and the improvements we are making across the country will keep road users safer for the long term. “We’ve committed to delivering additional safety benefits on our motorways and will remove roadworks as soon as we can.

All our projects are carefully planned to minimise disruption and keep the country moving.”

[embedded content]

Despite the total number of roadworks decreasing since 2015, the delays they cause are getting worse. So far this year there have been an average of 484 roadworks taking place on motorways across the country each week, fewer than the 624 recorded nine years ago. In 2015, 23 per cent of motorway roadworks – an average of 146 a week – caused delays of 10 minutes or more.

That figure has risen to 156 a week in 2024. National Highways[3] breaks the impact of roadworks down into three categories. “Slight” delays are fewer than 10 minutes, while “moderate” is between 10 and 30 minutes. “Severe” delays are longer than half an hour. Delays across the Strategic Road Network (SRN), which consists not only of motorways but also the country’s major A-roads, are also at their worst on record.

Since August last year, average traffic delays on the SRN have been measured at more than 10 seconds per vehicle mile, meaning a drive of 60 miles takes 10 minutes longer than it should have done. National Highways said earlier this week it hoped to lift about 80 miles of roadworks and to have another 420 miles’ worth completed by 6am on Friday.

Creamfields could cause chaos

Other areas, however, are still expecting to see bank holiday[4] congestion. An alert has been issued for the M56 and M6 in north-west England, with up to 70,000 dance music fans heading to the four-day Creamfields festival[5] in Cheshire, which started on Thursday.

Thousands of drivers were stuck for several hours in queues during the event last year. Extra police and traffic officers will be deployed around junction 11 of the M56 at Daresbury to deter festival-goers from walking on the motorway, which has happened during previous years, particularly following the end of the event. Elsewhere, the Dover was expecting more than 20,000 cars to pass through during the three-day weekend.

Travel trade organisation ABTA estimated that more than two million people will be heading overseas between Friday and Monday.

Popular destinations include beach resorts in Spain, Portugal, Greece and Turkey, with many people heading on city breaks to Dublin, Amsterdam, Paris, Barcelona and Milan.

CAA data show 160,000 flights were delayed and 8,000 were cancelled across UK airports in July and August last year.

References

1. ^ misery for millions (www.telegraph.co.uk)
2. ^ disruptive for nine years (www.telegraph.co.uk)
3. ^ National Highways (www.telegraph.co.uk)
4. ^ bank holiday (www.telegraph.co.uk)
5. ^ Creamfields festival (www.telegraph.co.uk)