A major £4.9m package of maintenance work on the M4 in Berkshire will start next month.
Sections of the motorway will be resurfaced, safety barriers and fences will be renewed and upgraded, concrete on structures will be repaired and bridge components will be replaced.
The nine separate schemes – all between junctions 10 and 11 of the M4 near Reading - have been closely coordinated to keep disruption to an absolute minimum.
Work gets underway on 1 October and will be completed next spring.
Highways Agency project manager Guy Watts said: “The M4 has provided decades of service to the country and – like all national infrastructure – periodic maintenance is vital to keep it operating safely and reliably.
"We have planned the work very carefully to keep traffic flowing, and will work hard to keep drivers up to date as the roadworks move forward.
"Parts of the work, such as the concrete repairs, may be noisy so we are writing to people who live nearby to give them as much notice as possible.”
Some sections of the work will be completed using temporary overnight lane and hard shoulder closures, while other elements – such as the safety barrier upgrade, which is scheduled to start at the end of October – will require narrow lanes and a temporarily reduced 50mph speed limit.
Weather permitting, the work is expected to be complete by April.
The full maintenance schedule is:
*Resurfacing work on the westbound M4 near junction 10, scheduled to start on 01 October for around two weeks. This work will be carried out using overnight lane closures.
*Replacing support posts on a 3-mile section of central reservation barrier near junction 10, scheduled to start on 29 October for around two months. This work will be carried out using a temporarily reduced speed limit, and overnight slip road closures at junction 10, with fully signed diversion routes in place.
*Concrete repairs on the M4 junction 10 interchange link road bridge, schedules to start on 31 October for around four weeks. This work is expected to be completed using occasional overnight carriageway closures, with fully signed diversion routes in place, and temporary overnight restrictions on the junction 10 slip roads.
*Resurfacing work on the eastbound M4 near junction 11, scheduled to start on 19 November for around a week. This work will be completed using overnight slip road closures, with fully signed diversion routes in place, and overnight lane closures on the M4.
*Resurfacing and replacing bridge joints on three bridges carrying the M4 over local roads, scheduled to start on 01 November, until the end of December. This work will be carried out using overnight lane closures and occasional westbound slip-road closures at junction 10.
*Resurfacing work on the eastbound M4 near junction 10, scheduled to start on 3 December and be completed in January. This work will be completed using overnight lane closures.
*Concrete repairs on the slip road bridges at junction 10, scheduled to start in January 2013 and be completed in February. This work is expected to be carried out using a temporary closure of the hard shoulder.
*Replacing a highway boundary fence alongside the M4, scheduled to start on February 2013 and be completed in March. This work is expected to be carried out using a temporary closure of the hard shoulder.
*Upgrading a 0.6 mile of life-expired steel safety barrier in the central reservation near junction 11 to a concrete barrier, expected to start in February 2013 and be completed at the end of March. This work is expected to be carried out using 24 hour narrow lanes and a temporarily reduced speed limit and occasional overnight carriageway closures, with a fully signed diversion route in place.
