Smart motorway M1 roadworks: Lane closures and 50mph limit set for a year at junctions 30 to 31

A major upgrade is about to start on the M1, with the work set to last for a whole year and cause considerable disruption.

Work to add more emergency areas between junction 30, at Barlborough, Derbyshire, and junction 31, at Aston, Rotherham, is due to begin on Monday, January 15.

What restrictions will be in place on the M1?

The inside - slow - lane will be closed throughout construction, in both directions, with a 50mph speed limit on the other three lanes.

Work will be carried out Monday to Friday from 7am to 7pm. National Highways says some overnight and weekend work may be required, and this will be communicated in advance.

It's part of a plan to add more emergency areas on the controversial all-lanes running sections of smart motorways across the country.

How long will the work take?

New emergency areas have already been created on other stretches of smart motorway, including elsewhere along the M1 in South Yorkshire.

Between junctions 30 and 31, 10 new emergency areas will be created, in addition to the existing six. The existing emergency areas will remain open 'wherever possible' throughout construction, drivers have been told. Where it is necessary to temporarily close an emergency area, a new temporary emergency area will be provided nearby and clearly signed. The work between junctions 30 and 31 of the M1 is scheduled for completion in January next year.

Why is the work being carried out?

The emergency areas are described as a safe place to stop on smart motorways where there is no permanent hard shoulder, if there is an emergency and you can't leave the motorway or stop at a motorway service station.

They are 100 metres long with a bright orange road surface and are equipped with emergency telephones.

When the work was announced last summer, Rotherham MP Sarah Champion said: "Whilst I’m glad our campaigning is finally getting National Highways to recognise how deadly ‘smart’ motorways are, rather than reinstating the hard shoulder, we will now have months of disruption as they retrofit the refuges that should have been built in the first place."

The Government last year announced that the building of new smart motorways was being cancelled, with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak acknowledging concerns about safety and costs.

But Claire Mercer, whose husband died in a crash on the M1 in Sheffield and who has led the campaign to abolish smart motorways, said she would not rest until the hard shoulder is restored on all motorways.

Reacting to news of the latest work, plenty of people have echoed her thoughts. One person wrote: "Putting them pull-ins is far from a safety upgrade. Best thing highways and government can do is put a solid white line back in and make lane 1 a hard shoulder again. Leave the pull in areas as extra safety."

Another commented: "Or we could have saved millions and just left the hard shoulder where it was?"

And a third person said: "The 'hard shoulders' should never have been removed. They must however be restored."