This page brings together the latest M3 roadworks — lane closures, overnight closures, contraflows and speed restrictions along the M3 motorway. Roadworks are one of the most common causes of M3 delays, so it’s worth a quick check here before you travel.

Latest M3 roadworks

Planning around M3 roadworks

Major M3 works often run overnight, when lanes or whole sections may be closed and diversions put in place. Where you can, check the affected junctions, allow extra time, or plan an alternative route. For live updates across the whole motorway see our Latest M3 Traffic News page, and use the M3 junction map to find your junction.

The kinds of M3 roadworks you will see here

“Roadworks” covers a lot of different things, and they affect your journey in very different ways. These are the categories National Highways publishes, in their own words:

The work itself

• Construction work — major schemes, often running for months.
• Road maintenance — routine upkeep, usually shorter.
• Resurfacing — new road surface; commonly overnight.
• Road marking — repainting lines and markings.

How it affects your lane

• Lane closures — one or more lanes shut, traffic still moving.
• Overnight closure — a section shut completely, usually with a signed diversion.
• Narrow lanes — lanes still open but reduced in width, often with a lower limit.
• Contraflow — traffic running on the opposite carriageway.
• Single-file traffic — one lane working alternately in each direction.
• Hard shoulder in use — the hard shoulder running as a live lane.

The categories above are the ones National Highways actually publishes in its traffic data feed, and the words are theirs, not ours.

Planned works and unplanned delays are not the same thing

Almost everything on this page is planned — scheduled in advance, with a start and an end time published by National Highways. That is what makes roadworks worth checking before you set off rather than after: unlike an incident, they are known about in advance.

Where a start or end time is shown, it is National Highways’ own stated time, not our estimate. Works can finish early or run late without the record being updated, so treat it as the plan rather than a promise.