The Highways England scheme between Junction 28 (Mansfield) and Junction 31 (Worksop) is the first smart motorway in the East Midlands and South Yorkshire, where the hard shoulder has been permanently converted to an extra lane.

Variable speed limits will also be used to keep vehicles moving, tackling the stop-start conditions many drivers have experienced in the past.

It is being delivered as part of a £15 billion Government investment in motorways and major A-roads by 2021.

Roads Minister Andrew Jones said: “This is all part of our plans to build a road network that is fit for the future, with a record £15 billion going into improving our roads, reducing congestion and keeping Britain moving.”

It is hoped the scheme will improve journeys for more than 95,000 drivers a day using this stretch of the M1.

A similar scheme on the M25, which opened just over a year ago, has seen the busiest journey times being halved and the number of collisions reduced by a fifth.

CCTV will be used 24 hours a day to enable staff in Highways England’s regional control centres near Nottingham and Wakefield to respond quickly to incidents, closing lanes using red ‘X’s on overhead signs if necessary.
Drivers using the upgraded stretch of the M1 will also be able to use emergency refuge areas if they break down.

The smart motorway between Junctions 28 and 31 includes:

40 miles of extra lanes
140 electronic signs
94 CCTV cameras with infrared capability
20 emergency refuge areas
17 overhead gantries
You can read more about smart motorways on the Club’s website.