MAJOR work to transform 15 miles of the M27 into a smart motorway should “only increase journey times by 13 minutes”, Highways England say.

From January 2, construction will begin to transform the road between junction 4 and 11 into an all-lane running smart motorway.

This means the existing hard shoulder would be converted into a traffic lane, providing four lanes for motorists.

The route lines Southampton and Portsmouth and has been the subject of congestion during peak hours.

Highways England hopes the new technology driven approach should tackle the issue, while also increasing capacity on the road and improve journey reliability.

In a newsletter, the maintenance firm said: “We’ll be using a contraflow system and narrow lanes to maintain three lanes running in each direction throughout the roadworks.

“There will also be a 50mph speed restriction within the roadworks until the scheme is fully operational and open to the public.

“This traffic management is in place to allow road users to travel through our roadworks without compromising their safety, or that of our workforce.

“To improve the customer experience, we’ve designed our narrow lanes to be wider than traditional narrow lanes so there is a greater distance between cars and HGVs in neighbouring lanes. We’ll also operate a 24/7 free recovery service throughout our roadworks, to help any stranded vehicles that have broken down within our work area.”

It added: “Our traffic model suggests that the average journey time will increase by a maximum of 13 minutes during our roadworks.”

Initially work will be focused on junctions four to eight, with work expected to be completed by the end of January. More work will then be carried out on the remainder of the motorway later in the year.