National Highways is more than doubling the number of emergency areas on the M1 between junction 32 at Thurcroft and junction 35A at Stocksbridge, with 12 new emergency areas being added to the existing eight.

Starting on June 5 and expected to be complete by winter 2024, the left-hand lane will be closed throughout construction to allow engineers to carry out the upgrade safely.

Lanes two, three and four will remain open with a 50mph speed limit in place. 

The upgrade is part of National Highways’ commitment to build more than 150 new emergency areas between 2020 – 2025.

The M1 smart motorway became operational in the region and open to traffic in 2017 with the section designated as Britain’s first ever Air Quality “Speed Limit” based motorway.

Highways England (now National Highways) completed a £106m scheme on a ten mile stretch of the M1 between junctions 32 (south of Sheffield and Rotherham) and 35a (north of Sheffield and Rotherham), and a 20 mile stretch of the M1 between junction 28 (South Normanton) and 31 (Aston) in a project costing £205m.

The projects include converting the hard shoulder to an extra traffic lane in both directions and mandatory speed limits set to 60mph.

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In April, the Department for Transport announced that it had removed new smart motorways from government road-building plans “in recognition of lack of public confidence and cost pressures.” The government and National Highways also said that it would continue to invest £900m in further safety improvements on existing smart motorways.

At the time, Rotherham MP Sarah Champion said: “While I am pleased that new smart motorways will not be built, this does nothing to address the serious concerns about existing roads, including the M1 in Rotherham.

“Removing the hard shoulder greatly increases risks to motorists. Technology that is supposed to keep us safe is ineffective and unreliable.

“The Government should commit immediately to restoring the hard shoulder across the motorway network and I will continue to fight until they do.”

National Highways Project Sponsor Felicity Clayton said: “The safety of people travelling on England’s motorways and major A-roads is National Highways’ highest priority. We have listened to drivers’ concerns about being able to find a safe place to stop in an emergency on motorways which don’t have a permanent hard shoulder and have been developing a programme to roll out even more emergency areas on all lane running smart motorways, in operation and construction.  

“This investment in extra emergency areas will help increase road users’ confidence. We have also put stopped vehicle detection technology in place on all operational all lane running motorways, added more signs so drivers will almost always be able to see a sign informing them of the distance to the next place to stop in an emergency, and included advice about smart motorways online and in an updated Highway Code, to help road users feel safe and be safer on our roads.”

Images: National Highways