National Highways has confirmed its multi-million smart motorway project is still going ahead despite the government scrapping the pilot project altogether.

The agency issued an update about the major upgrade of the M6, between junctions 21a and 26 at Lancashire, Merseyside, Cheshire and Manchester and confirmed they are in the "final stages". The upgrade will see the M6 transformed into an "all-lane running" smart motorway by adding an additional lane in each direction as well as further emergency areas.

Dubbed a strategic route, NH estimates 120,000 vehicles use it daily between those core locations. All-lane-running (ALR) smart motorways are created to ease congestion, with some using the hard shoulder as an extra lane. But the idea sparked fears among locals and authoritative figures, who branded them as "death traps" due to their design.

BBC Panorama earlier revealed hundreds of incidents where vital safety equipment was out of order, leaving cars trapped in fast-flowing traffic. However, National Highways defended the project and said "smart motorways are our safest roads." Further overnight motorway closures took place this week, with more expected later this month.

An updated statement on the National Highways website said: "Since opening the new fourth lane, we’ve been completing finishing work and testing systems to ensure they’re working as expected. We’re reducing disruption by doing most of this work under overnight lane and slip road closures. However, some full night-time carriageway closures are required for safety in November.

"The roadworks will allow us to continue fine-tuning safety and technology systems and complete further finishing work. This includes optimising signals at junction 23 (Haydock Island) of the M6 to improve traffic flows." The company warned: "Please be aware that a 50mph speed limit remains in place during our current phase of work.
Smart motorways aim to ease traffic flow (
Image:
PA)

"When systems are performing as expected at 50mph, we'll increase the maximum speed to the national limit of 70mph. From then on, further testing continues as part of our continual improvement process." The entire project itself will cost between £259 million and £285 million. When the road eventually reopens, drivers will have more places to stop in the event of an emergency.

The upgrade was initially due to be completed this spring, but delays due to "a variety of factors" like difficult ground conditions due to old mine workings in the area pushed back the completion date. Road safety campaigners at the AA called for smart motorways to be urgently "abolished". Simon Williams, RAC’s head of policy, said: “There is a real irony when it comes to talking about cost pressures in relation to these distinctly unpopular types of motorway.
Work is set to be complete next year (
Image:
PA)

"While heralded as a cost-effective way of increasing capacity on some of our busier roads, a colossal amount of public money has since gone into trying to make them safer – for instance by installing radar-based technology to detect stricken vehicles more quickly, plus the creation of additional emergency refuge areas. This cash needn’t have been spent. The government ploughed on with building all-lane-running motorways, regardless of concerns expressed by drivers, the RAC and even the Transport Committee.”

Sarah Champion, Rotherham MP and a long-time campaigner against smart motorways, is backing the RAC’s call. “Government needs to do the right thing and reinstate the hard shoulder to all existing smart motorways and all the schemes under construction,” she told the Daily Telegraph. In 2023 the government banned the creation of more smart motorways. Only some stretches of smart motorway that were near completion were allowed to continue.

A £900m cash injection is also being spent on technology to make the existing network safer, but this does not include reinstating the hard shoulder.

Latest overnight motorway closures

Closures will take place between 9pm to 6am

  • M6 southbound junction 22 to 21a - Friday 15 November
  • M6 southbound junction 23 to 22 - Wednesday 27 November