M27 Smart Motorway Roadworks

The sign advising of the full misery ahead, pictured at M27 J7 westbound in March 2018. In the event, the noticeable work didn't start until more than a year after the date stated.

Travelling east at the Quob Lane bridge in September 2019. This was one of the first sections to start work, and work is currently taking place mainly on the central reservation.

Heading underneath J7. The concrete surface is staying. You can see one of the duplicate road signs on the left.

Machines are drilling for the gantries (or to fill where the old gantries were?) above J8.

The small and unhelpful roadworks sign stands next to the main sign, as it has done since the work started, with slightly different information.

All of the countdown signs have been covered up by these strange creations.

The abandoned slip road that was intended to serve Meon services, but was never used for more than 50 years, was mysteriously given a thorough refurbishment in 2018. Unfortunately, as this picture shows, that brand new road was then used only to store dirt.

The concrete surface of the M27, seen from Botley Road in Hedge End in September 2020. A late change to the plans saw the proposed concrete central barrier cancelled, after the land had been torn up and left waiting for it for more than 12 months. Instead, a temporary barrier has been provided, with an aspiration of replacing it under another roadworks project in a few years.

One of the huge, ugly new gantry support structures, pictured near Hedge End in January 2021.

More than a year after it was originally expected to be complete, the gantries at M27 J4 are now ready to be finished. The plan had been for three lanes to continue through the junction, but this was cut back.

A rare example of a sign with a "now" instruction, being used in the wrong position, at the Whiteley exit.

The situation at Meon in January 2021. The recently repaired slip road on the left is now in a pretty poor state, while the one on the right has now been closed as part of plans to change the exit arrangement. Highways England have so far refused to say what the purpose of that change is.