Smart motorways map 2022: Where are they located in the UK?

SINCE 2014, more than 375 miles of the UK’s busiest roads have been converted into smart motorways.

The project, which was introduced to ease congestion, now covers huge swathes of England as well as part of Scotland and Northern Ireland. Here’s all you need to know.

2

Where are the smart motorways located in the UK?

Birmingham

A traffic management technique that used the hard shoulder as an additional lane was first used on the M42 motorway in 2006.

A year later, plans were announced to extend the scheme sections of the M6 motorway at a cost of £150 million.

The region’s smart motorways include:

M6 – Junction 4 to 10a (Dynamic hard shoulder)

M6 – Junction 10a to 13 (All-lane running)

M42 – Junction 3a to M40 – Junction 16 (Controlled)

M42 – Junction 7 to 9 (Dynamic hard shoulder)

Greater London

Sections of M25 already had used variable speed limits, since they were first installed in 1995.

But in 2007, the Department for Transport decided to widen sections of the M25 under the smart motorway scheme.

The now include:

M1 – Junction 6a-10 (Controlled)

M1 – Junction 10-13 (Dynamic hard shoulder)

M3 – Junction 2-4a (All-lane running)

M20 – Junction 4 to 7 (Controlled)

M25 – Junction 2 to 3 (Controlled)

M25 – Junction 5 to 7 (All-lane running)

M25 – Junction 7 to 8 (Controlled)

M25 – Junction 10 to 16 (Controlled)

M25 – Junction 23 to 27 (All-lane running)

M25 – Junction 27 to 30 (Controlled)

M26 – Junction 16 to 23 (Controlled)

Nottinghamshire and West Yorkshire

In 2010, a £2 billion contract was announced to extend the smart motorway scheme to sections of the M1, M4, M5, M6, M60 and M62.

Today they include:

M1 – Junction 25 to 28 (Controlled)

M1 – Junction 28 to 31 (All-lane running)

M1 – Junction 32 to 35a (All-lane running)

M1 – Junction 39 to 42 (All-lane running)

M62 – Junction 25 to 30 (Dynamic hard shoulder)

2

Bristol

M4 – Junction 19 to 20 (Dynamic hard shoulder)

M5 – Junction 15 to 17 (Dynamic hard shoulder)

Greater Manchester

M60 – Junction 8 to 18 (Controlled)

M62 – Junction 18 to 20 (All-lane running)

Belfast

M1 – A12

Edinburgh

M9 – M90

Fife

M90- A823(M)

Which roads are going to become smart motorways next?

Despite the confirmed suspension of smart motorway projects, National Highways will continue work on roads already under construction.

The Department for Transport says all will all open “with technology in place to detect stopped vehicles”.

These roads include:

• M1 Junction 13 to 16
• M3 Junction 3 to 12
• M4 Junction 3 to 12
• M6 Junction 13 to 16
• M6 Junction J121 to J26
• M27 Junction 4 to 11
• M40 Junction 6 to 8
• M42 J3 to 4
• M56 Junction 6 to 8