Smart motorways in England set to be switched off starting today

Smart motorways in England are set to switch off today as part of a crucial tech update. Car-detection software and variable speed limit signs will be unavailable, motorists, road users and drivers across the country - including the M6 in Staffordshire - have been warned.

National Highways has confirmed smart motorways in all regions of the country will be affected from 10pm to 3am tomorrow (December 1). From December 2 to December 4, there will be extensive work carried out on several motorways during the daytime.

Starting on Monday, the M23 will be affected from J10 to J8, as well as the M25 from J12 to J14, with the disruption lasting from 10am to 2pm and 3pm respectively. The M25 will then be affected in the opposite direction from J14 to J13 on Tuesday.

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And all motorways in the East region will be impacted from 9am to noon. A spokesperson for National Highways said: "As a result of essential technology maintenance, Smart Motorway stopped vehicle detection and/or the ability to reset electronic signs and signals will not be in operation along some sections of the above motorways for periods during these times.

"There are no road closures planned for this work." No closures are being reported, but smart motorway users are being told to brush up on the changes and plan their journeys accordingly as we head into the final month of the calendar year.

The spokesperson for National Highways went on to add: "Where required, we have well-rehearsed plans and mitigations including extra Traffic Officer patrols, increased CCTV monitoring and reduced speed limits in locations that require these measures to be put in place."

The smart motorway network covers around 300 miles. There are three different types of smart motorway in the UK. Stationary vehicles are detected on smart motorways through CCTV cameras and technology through a system called MIDAS, which picks up slowing traffic because of an incident.

More intelligent radar technology known as ‘stationary vehicle detection’ (SVD) is used on a few stretches of ‘all lane running’ smart motorways, which automatically picks up a stranded vehicle The technology can detect stationary vehicles up to 16 minutes quicker than a camera-based system. A Highways England report revealed that only 18% of all-lane running motorways have SVD installed - the RAC would like to see it rolled out across the entire smart motorway network.

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