The £317million three-year major roads project to improve traffic flows at the M25’s junction with the A3 is now going to be a four-year project, drifting into 2026, and with more motorway closures planned for next month.
No through road: more closures of the M25 are planned for two weekends in March
National Highways says that the project has been hampered by “periods of extreme weather”.
The Cobham junction is the busiest section of the M25, with more than 300,000 vehicles using it every day.
Since 2022, National Highways has been working to build a new bridge and add extra lanes around Junction 10 at Cobham, with days when the entire motorway has been closed, affecting traffic back to Leatherhead and the A243, and tailbacks that have affected traffic across south-west London.
A stretch of the motorway will be fully or partially closed on two weekends in March.
The M25 will be closed in both directions from March 7 to 10 and March 21 to 24 for old bridges to be demolished and removed.
The closures will start at 9pm on each Friday and are due to be lifted by 6am on each Monday. It is promised that this will be the final block of work on the M25.
Following this, the A3 will be closed northbound between J10 and the A245 at the Cobham roundabout between April 11 and 14.
New crossing: National Highways have constructed a new bridge at J10, and the country’s first ‘heathland bridge’ for wildlife
Senior project manager Jonathan Wade told the BBC: “Periods of extreme weather in 2024 delayed some elements of our work but since then we’ve worked hard to recoup that time and still complete the on-road elements on schedule.”
The work had been due to be completed this summer, but will now not be finished until spring 2026 at the earliest.
When the M25 was closed for the works 12 months ago, it was the the first planned daytime shutdown of motorway since it opened in 1986.
The work has included the installation of structures for pedestrians, cyclists and horse-riders, and Britain’s first “heathland bridge”, to provide a safe corridor for wildlife.
“Unfortunately, it’s simply not possible to carry out this scale of infrastructure improvement, which will benefit millions of people in the long term, without there being some degree of short-term disruption,” Wade said.
“We have spent months planning these closures, but they will still cause significant congestion and delays, so we are asking road users to allow extra time and use alternative routes where possible.”
FREE ADS: Paid-up subscribers to Inside Croydon qualify for a free ad for their business, residents’ association or community group, just one of the benefits of being part of our online community. For more information about being an iC subscriber, click here for our Patreon page
PAID ADS: To advertise your services or products to our 10,000 weekday visitors to the site, as featured on Google News Showcase, email us inside.croydon@btinternet.com for our unbeatable ad rates
- If you have a news story about life in or around Croydon, or want to publicise your residents’ association or business, or if you have a local event to promote, please email us with full details at inside.croydon@btinternet.com
As featured on Google News Showcase
- Our comments section on every report provides all readers with an immediate “right of reply” on all our content. Our comments policy can be read by clicking here
Inside Croydon is a member of the Independent Community News Network
