Gantry signs

UK’s Highway Agency has announced the completion of work to upgrade the M4 section of the smart motorway project near Bristol in south-west England.

The completed scheme will ease congestion along the stretch, while providing safe and reliable journeys to road users in the south-west.

The Highways Agency, which conducted trials earlier this month, will open the hard shoulder between junctions 19 and 20 of the M4 section during rush hours, beginning 26 November.

Traffic officers at the Highways Agency regional control centre in Avonmouth will open the hard shoulder to traffic, and set messages and variable mandatory speed limits on the overhead gantries in order to indicate when the hard shoulder can be used as an extra lane.

"We’re delighted to launch this section of the smart motorway."

Highways Agency assistant project manager Adrian Hull said: "We’re delighted to launch this section of the smart motorway on the M4. It represents a real milestone for the project, which is ahead of schedule.

"We urge road users to follow the overhead signs, and remind them that the hard shoulder can only be legally used by motorists as a running lane when a speed limit is displayed above it, otherwise it is for emergency purposes only."

Testing of hard shoulder between junctions 15 and 17 of the M5 section will commence in December.

Variable speed limits will be shown in a red ring; lane closures will be displayed by a solid red cross with flashing beacons; and instructions to move out of a lane will be shown by a white arrow.

Work on the £88m project started at the Almondsbury Interchange in January 2012, and is slated to be completed in the spring of 2014.

The M4/M5 scheme, which will be the first smart motorway in the south-west, covers seven miles of motorway.

Image: Gantry signs on managed motorway. Photo: courtesy of Highways Agency.