Ongoing works at the M40/M42 interchange have been suspended after the UK Government announced it will pause all smart motorway projects.

The £312million scheme in Warwickshire is one of four smart motorways to be put on hold after the government announced yesterday (January 12) more safety checks were needed.

Campaigners said smart motorways, which use the hard shoulder as live traffic lanes, are too dangerous. Whilst in November 2021 MPs on the Commons transport select committee said work should be stopped whilst more safety data was collected.

The government will now analyse five years of data from the existing 400 miles of smart motorway across the country before works resume.

But any smart motorways already in use will continue to run without a hard shoulder.

As well as the M40/M42 interchange, work on the M3 between junctions 9 and 14, on the M62 between junctions 20 and 25, and on the M25 between junctions 10 and 16 will also be put on hold.

At the M40/M42 interchange the hard shoulder was being converted to a fourth lane between M42 junction 3 and junction 3a, and M42 junction 3a to M40 junction 16.

New emergency areas, electronic signs, CCTV cameras and new safety barriers were also being built.

Work on the M40/M42, which was due to finish in 2024, began in July last year, but the government has given no indication as to when it might resume.

(Header image by David Dixon via geograph.org.uk)