£174m Work Starts To Improve Hampshire Motorway

3 November 2014, 10:29 | Updated: 3 November 2014, 10:31

Major work has started this morning (Monday 3 November) on one of Hampshire's main commuter routes up to London.

The section between Junctions 2 and 4a at Farnborough will become a smart motorway, adding a fourth lane in both directions in place of the hard shoulder and adding enhanced on-road technology to keep traffic moving safely and reliably, providing a boost for businesses and the wider economy.

The road will also be resurfaced with a new, low noise material.

Highways Agency project manager Pranav Devale said:

“This busy section of the M3 is used for more than 130,000 journeys every day, and these vital improvements will add much needed extra capacity. Smart motorways are a safe, cost effective solution for improving journeys.”

The Highways Agency is planning to complete the main works of this £174 million project by the end of 2016 with work taking place predominantly from Monday to Friday, although occasional weekend work may be needed for some specific parts of the project. 

A spokesperson said:

"As we will be keeping three lanes of traffic open during daytime throughout the project this restricts the available working area so we will also need to undertake some work at night."

Details of this project are available on the Highways Agency website:  http://www.highways.gov.uk/roads/road-projects/m3-junctions-2-4a/.