Here’s why we were held up
Historic M25 closure leaves drivers fuming in 5-mile tailbacks as bridge is demolished
IT IS a stunning bird’s-eye view of the M25 looking more like a building site. And it offered no comfort to the thousands of fuming drivers caught in five-mile tailbacks caused by yesterday’s first-ever daytime closure of London’s busy orbital motorway.
Around 6,000 vehicles an hour were diverted on to single-carriageway A-roads to bypass a five-mile section of motorway between junctions 10 and 11.
While motorists languished in lengthy queues in Surrey, they were warned to get used to the disruption as a further four closures are planned for summer.
The section of road will remain shut until 6am tomorrow while the Clearmount bridleway bridge at Wisley in Surrey is demolished and a new gantry installed in the first planned daytime closure of the motorway since it opened in 1986.
Normally, every hour from 10am to 9pm at weekends the M25 carries up to 6,000 vehicles in each direction between the affected junctions. But yesterday the eerily quiet roads leading to and from the roadworks attracted only gawpers, mostly locals keen to take selfies with the empty motorway in the background.
National Highways had warned motorists to travel only ‘if necessary’, but thousands of drivers failed to heed the warning.
In a post on X, formerly Twitter, National Highways South East sought to reassure motorists caught in tailbacks that the works were ‘progressing’.
Daryl Jordan, of Woking Borough Council, complained that its residents were being ‘affected massively’ by the closure.
South East Coast Ambulance Service, which covers Surrey, urged drivers in queues to clear the way for ambulances.
The improvements to the motorway, due to be completed in summer 2025, will increase the number of lanes at junction 10, one of the UK’s most dangerous.