Highways England plans to lift and complete almost 400 miles of roadworks across the country before the festive period to ensure almost 99% of motorways and strategic A roads will be roadworks-free in time for Christmas.
The repair teams at Highways England will be working around the clock to complete hundreds of miles of road improvements in time for the holidays. The roadworks embargo runs from 6am on 22 December until 12.01am on 2 January to help people get away this Christmas with as little disruption as possible.
Highways England’s customer service director Melanie Clarke said:” We’re doing everything we can to make journeys as smooth as possible this Christmas and that’s why we’re keeping 99% of the road network we manage free from roadworks.
“Over the past two years we’ve already added 190 lane miles of much needed capacity and that will make life easier for those travelling around this month, as the Christmas countdown begins.
“The majority of the 18 large-scale improvements already completed by Highways England have added much-needed capacity to some of England’s busiest roads.”
More than 5,000 Highways England staff including traffic officers and control room operatives will be working around the clock this Christmas, helping to clear incidents and manage congestion.
During 2016/17, Highways England traffic officers attended more than 49,000 incidents, clearing just over 85% of them within an hour.