Today marks the official opening of the South West's first Smart Motorway scheme around the Almondsbury Interchange near Bristol.

The scheme covers over 11km of motorway on the M4 between junctions 19 and 20, and on the M5 between junctions 15 and 17. Use of variable speed limits and opening up hard shoulders during busy periods will, it is hoped, help to reduce both congestion and journey times and improve safety.

Roads Minister Robert Goodwill said: "Every day more than 140,000 vehicles use this section of motorway, which is an essential gateway to the South West."

Highways Agency senior project manager Paul Unwin added: "The M4 and M5 scheme demonstrates how a smart and efficient solution can deliver improvements that road users need; more capacity and better management of traffic."

Works started on the £88M Smart Motorway project in January 2012 and were completed by contractor Balfour Beatty two months ahead of schedule.

Thirty three new gantries have been installed and seven have been refurbished for the scheme. Six emergency refuge areas have been built for use by stranded motorists and over 22km of carriageway has been resurfaced.

The first hard shoulder running scheme was introduced on the M42 between junctions 3a and seven in 2006. Research published three years ago show that accidents more than halved on that stretch of motorway since the scheme was introduced.

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