National Highways is removing more than 1,100 miles of roadworks from motorways and major A-roads to help minimise disruption during peak travel times.
From 6am on Friday (December 20) until 12.01am on Thursday, January 2, more than 95% of roadworks will be lifted.
Significant routes to benefit from roadworks being lifted or completed for the festive period include more than 100 miles of roadworks on the M25 London orbital and 25 miles of roadworks on the M4 between J4 near Heathrow and J14 at Hungerford.
The RAC is warning of major delays on the UK’s roads with a record number of festive trips expected ahead of the Christmas break.
An estimated 29.3 million journeys will be made by drivers to see friends and family in the run-up to December 25 – the highest number since 2013.
Almost half of these (14.3m) will be made this coming weekend, according to new data from the RAC and Inrix.
National Highways data shows that winter breakdown incidents on major roads have increased by 22% over the last five years, with tyre issues being the top cause (19.1%) followed by loss of power (7.9%).
Andrew Butterfield, National Highways customer service director, urged drivers to plan ahead and exercise extra caution on the roads.
He added: “To help make journeys smoother, we’re removing roadworks on 95% of the roads we manage.”
The majority of roadworks will be lifted during the Christmas period including: 11 miles in the north-west; 24.7 miles in Yorkshire and the north east; 164.25 miles in the midlands; 235.5 miles in the east; and 743.1 miles in the south east.
A further 45 miles of roadworks are being removed along the M1. These were put in place to build new places to stop in an emergency. There are now 28 new emergency areas open on the M1.
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