M25 closures: UK motorway shut for 57 hours with major disruption expected on diversion route

A huge section of the M25 in Surrey has closed for the first time in its history sparking a weekend of travel chaos for drivers in and around London. Local residents and businesses along the diversion route have been warned to expect major disruption.

The UK's busiest motorway was blocked off by road workers at 9pm last night (Friday 15 March) at junctions 10 and 11, with the closures remaining in place for 57 hours throughout the weekend until 6am on Monday morning (18 March). Concerns have been raised that thousands of drivers will be stuck in gridlocked traffic over the weekend during the unprecedented closure.

It is the first planned daytime closure of the motorway – which encircles London – since it opened in 1986. An 11.5-mile diversion route has been created to direct motorway traffic along A roads.

Daryl Jordan, of Woking Borough Council, told the PA news agency that the Byfleet Road, which is close to junction 10, was already “chock-a-block” on Friday afternoon. He said residents will be “affected massively”.

Mr Jordan added: “It’s going to be a nightmare. Just going down the road to get milk is going to be a problem tomorrow or picking up your dry cleaning.”

Mark Pollak, owner of Billy Tong, which caters for events and sells biltong at markets, told PA he expects to see 50% of the firm’s turnover for the weekend go “down the drain”.

Mr Pollak said he had to refuse a request for Billy Tong to cater an event in Guildford and had to cancel its stall at Surbiton Farmers’ Market today (Saturday 16 March) with staff not wanting to face expected traffic to get to jobs. He said: “It has a massive impact on my business. I’ve cancelled events, I can’t get customers to come and collect stuff, I can’t get my staff to go to events.”

The M25 normally carries between 4,000 and 6,000 vehicles in each direction every hour from 10am until 9pm at weekends between junctions nine and 11. This includes many airline passengers travelling to, from and between the UK’s two busiest airports, Heathrow and Gatwick.

National Highways said modelling carried out while it was developing its plans for this weekend indicated vehicles would face delays of up to five hours without mitigation measures, such as urging drivers to stay away. It is urging drivers not to use their sat navs to attempt to find quicker alternative routes on minor roads due to fears this could cause major congestion.

Four more daytime closures of the M25 will take place up to September. The project, due to be completed in summer 2025, will increase the number of lanes at junction 10, which is one of the UK’s busiest and most dangerous motorway junctions.