On the scene at the M25 closure: did it really cause traffic chaos?

Open gallery The M25 is completely closed between junctions 10 and 11 The work being done will increase the number of lanes at junction 10 Five full closures are expected to have taken place by September Close News 5 mins read 16 March 2024 Follow @@jticoharrison The first-ever planned full-land closure of a stretch of the M25, Britain’s busiest motorway, this weekend had sparked warnings of traffic chaos. Intrigued to how south west London’s infrastructure would cope with the potential chaos, we decided to pay a visit. On the scene at the M25 diversion: Saturday 16 March Concorde, the Intercity 125 and the M25 motorway. Three icons of British transportation, but only the latter remains in heavy public use. The plane didn’t last too long beyond the turn of the century, and the train has been relegated to regional use rather than the cross-country routes it was designed to serve, but  the motorway hasn’t seen a change of use, though - unlike the others, it simply can’t afford to.  Related articles Whether you’re heading into the city itself or trying desperately to avoid it, there’s no escaping the M25. London and its surrounding areas have only become more populous since the motorway was completed in 1986, and traffic numbers have only grown with it - originally designed to carry 88,000 vehicles every day, the Department for Transport’s latest statistics show that it carried a whopping 204,000 vehicles every 24-hour cycle in 2022. As poorly-paved, over-populated and generally soul-crushing as the M25 is, the only thing more nightmarish for drivers than the M25 is a world where it doesn’t exist. Everyone is thinking the same thing the day before the first-ever full weekend closure of a section of the M25 - between Wisley and Chertsey in Surrey, to allow an old bridge to be demolished and a new gantry to be installed - this is going to be a glimpse into pure, unadulterated motoring hell. There are no peak traffic times on this section of the M25, known as the South West Quarter - it simply starts around 6am and doesn’t ease up for the next 12 hours. Unusually for a motorway, 78% of motorists on the SWQ are coming from or travelling to somewhere relatively nearby. Public transport on the routes that these journeys would normally take is borderline non-existent, and there are simply no other major roads to take the pressure off of the motorway.  Latest Reviews Mazda 2 Hybrid Renault Scenic E-Tech View all car reviews Back to top It’s not like you can just build another main road, either; virtually every piece of undeveloped land in the area is protected by law, underground tunnels would be prohibitively expensive and no-one wants their house to be flattened for a motorway. Between 4000 and 6000 cars each way, per hour, would normally use this 4.8-mile, eight-lane section of motorway on a weekend. Instead, they’re being sent - if, as requested, they follow the official diversion - on an 11-mile magical mystery tour of the sleepier parts of Surrey, ironically crawling within sight of both the former Brooklands racetrack and the McLaren HQ just outside Woking.  After the first half-mile on the A3, the diversion route is comprised purely of single-carriageway roads, with numerous roundabouts, traffic lights and other bits of potentially progress-impeding street features you certainly wouldn’t find on a motorway. National Highways has issued an advisory to avoid the area like the plague, but locals and drivers alike are expecting Carmageddon. I’d been designated Autocar’s M25 mayhem correspondent, but I didn’t fancy taking my car anywhere near the inevitable mess. So my plan was to become Byfleet’s no-name, full-suspension mountain bike guy, digging out my bike for the first time in years so I could zip past the inevitable unending miles of furious motorists. Executing my plan meant an early-morning train ride from my home in Dorset. It was unexpectedly busy - had people actually heeded the advice and sought alternative transport? Back to top I hop off the train at Byfleet & New Haw, about half a mile north of the diversion route, and head for the A245, expecting it to be transformed into a car park. Cut down the alley, head down the path towards the roundabout and… Oh. Everything is fine. Byfleet isn’t a dystopian future vision of a cyberpunk future where public transport is banned and people are forced to drive everywhere, choking the streets with thousands of types of traffic - it’s just a small town with a road that barely qualifies as busy going through the middle of it. Sure, there are more lorries than normal, but the road itself is flowing along like it would on any other Saturday morning. The diversion route crosses over an eerily deserted M25 - eight lanes of silence. A fair few locals have