Four overnight closures as M4 'smart motorway' work begins

The plans cover junctions three to 12 of the M4 and are expected to cost up to £860m

A section of the M4 will be closed for four nights in succession, as part of the project to turn it into a "smart motorway".

The road will be closed in Berkshire between junctions 8/9 (Maidenhead) and 10 (Wokingham) from 22:00 to 05:00 BST on 30 July to 2 August.

Highways England say the four-year project will create the longest stretch of "smart motorway" in England.

The scheme will cost up to £862.4m and is set to be complete by March 2022.

The four overnight closures are for preparatory work, with the project due to get underway in earnest in September.

It will see the hard shoulder converted into a traffic lane, with technology used to monitor and set speed limits.

The project forms part of wider work on a 32-mile (51km) stretch of road between junctions 3 (Heathrow) and 12 (Theale) which will reduce congestion for 130,000 cars that travel on the road each day.

Eleven bridges over the M4 will be demolished and rebuilt and four more carrying the motorway over roads, railways and rivers will be widened.

Safety concerns have been previously raised by the RAC over the lack of a hard shoulder.

However, Highways England said "places of relative safety will be every 1.12 miles on average and no more than 1.6 miles apart".