Six miles of traffic on first morning as M25 section shut all weekend – live

4 extra daytime closures of the M25 will happen as much as September.

The undertaking, as a result of be accomplished in summer time 2025, will enhance the variety of lanes at junction 10, which is among the UK’s busiest and most harmful motorway junctions.

South East Coast Ambulance Service has urged drivers to clear the best way for ambulances forward of a “difficult weekend” for crews.

And enterprise homeowners within the areas alongside the diversion route have advised of cuts they’ve made to their companies in anticipation of visitors.

Mark Pollak, proprietor of Billy Tong, which caters for occasions and sells biltong at markets, advised the PA information company that he expects to see 50 per cent of the agency’s turnover for the weekend go “down the drain”.

Mr Pollak stated he needed to refuse a request for Billy Tong to cater an occasion in Guildford and needed to cancel its stall at Surbiton Farmers’ Market on Saturday, with workers not desirous to face anticipated visitors to get to jobs.

Site visitors on the remainder of the M25 is more likely to be a lot heavier; for instance motorists from Birmingham or Oxford taking the M40 to London might determine to move for Gatwick by way of the northern and jap sections of the M25, rising congestion.

Many key rail hyperlinks throughout Nice Britain are closed – with the absence of trains from London Marylebone to Aylesbury presumably exacerbating issues brought on by the M25 closure.

Extra rail closures:

Queues on aid roads in Cobham, the place M25 visitors are being diverted because of the closures, had been earlier stretching round six miles, in accordance with information from Inrix, the Night Customary stories.

The closed stretch of the M25 is simply 5 miles lengthy, whereas the diversion route stretches 11.5 miles.

Sure. The simple choice is to take the Elizabeth Line from Heathrow to Farringdon in central London, which has a direct connection to Thameslink trains. The journey time is about 90 minutes.

Maddeningly, Nationwide Rail doesn’t provide fares for the entire journey. The answer is to purchase one ticket from Heathrow to East Croydon and one other from there to Gatwick. The entire single fare is £22.30.

Junctions 10 and 11 function key intersections on the southwest quadrant of the M25, Britain’s busiest motorway.

Junction 10 is the place the M25 meets the A3 to Guildford and Portsmouth, with many motorists additionally accessing Chessington World of Journey. Junction 11 serves the important thing hyperlink of the A320 between Staines and Woking, in addition to the A317 to Weybridge.

Travellers accessing Heathrow and Gatwick airports will likely be affected, as will many motorists heading for Channel crossings in Kent.

Our journey correspondent Simon Calder has extra particulars right here:

Nationwide Highways has warned of two miles of tailbacks within the lead as much as the closed part of the M25.

A five-mile stretch of the motorway between junctions 10 and 11 was closed in each instructions at 9pm on Friday and can stay inaccessible till 6am on Monday whereas a bridge is demolished and a brand new gantry put in.

Dozens of sightseers are converging on the purpose the place the primary diversion route for the weekend closure of the M25 crosses the abandoned motorway.

Automobiles, vans and coaches are being directed from Junction 10 northeast up the A3, however then go sharply left to move west on the A245 – which is carrying a heavy burden of visitors throughout the M25.

“It’s completely astonishing,” says Simon Vassallo, who has lived within the space for 35 years. He’s out early “to replenish on provisions” forward of the visitors build up.

Mr Vassallo advised The Impartial: “Once we got here throughout the bridge this morning, we simply needed to cease, take just a few photos and take within the marvel that’s an empty M25.”

One other native man, Terry Craig from West Byfleet, is savouring the sight. “It’s fairly extraordinary to see the motorway, all of those lanes, simply shut off. It’s unimaginable. Aside from Covid, I don’t suppose we’ve ever seen something fairly like this.”

Jill Holland, additionally from West Byfleet, is out for a motorcycle experience. “That is the primary highway between West Byfleet and all over the place else. Keep away from us fully.”

“Keep residence weekend”: that’s the applicable slogan between 15 and 18 March for motorists who usually use the southwest quadrant of the M25 motorway.

Nationwide Highways says the closure is “to demolish the Clearmount bridleway bridge and set up a really massive gantry”. It says: “With no full closure of the M25 at this junction, it might be not possible to securely demolish the overbridges and set up the brand new gantry.”

Our journey correspondent Simon Calder has extra particulars right here: