ROADWORKS to widen the M25 which have caused a daily congestion headache for motorists for almost 16 months are set to come to an end within weeks.
Construction work on the Highways Agency's £129 million project to turn the hard shoulder into a fourth lane between junctions 7 for the M23 and 5 for Sevenoaks in Kent, is due to finish this week. However, this will be followed by technical testing of cameras, sensors and SOS phones, and the agency cannot yet confirm a finish date, although it will be this spring.
While motorists will wave goodbye to the narrow lanes and 50mph speed limits – in place since November 2012 – with delight, there is disbelief the middle two lanes will not be resurfaced as part of the "smart motorway" scheme.
Roger Stevens, 61, joins the motorway at Godstone for his journey from home in Horley to work in Sevenoaks.
"Hopefully having this extra lane will make things a lot easier for a lot of people," he said. "It has been no fun with the narrow lanes."
But he was astonished to hear the whole road will not be resurfaced before it is fully reopened.
"There are original strips of tarmac that are just breaking up," he said. "They have been out patching it up but I just cannot believe that a £129 million project doesn't have an allocation for resurfacing, when that is the main part of the road."
John Martin, Highways Agency senior project manager, said: "We have always carried out repairs where they are most needed and we will continue to do this.
"The budget for the smart motorway scheme does not include money for resurfacing of all the lanes, only where needed to create the additional capacity. Resurfacing of the other lanes will be carried out as part of the agency's routine maintenance programme."
As a section of "smart motorway", the former hard shoulder on the two-junction stretch has been converted to a normal traffic lane, with a series of emergency refuges constructed alongside it. CCTV cameras will help the agency spot incidents and close lanes by displaying an 'X' on overhead gantries.
The system is cheaper and less disruptive than a traditional road-widening scheme, says the agency.