Drivers have been warned to stay at home and paint the bathroom as a section of the M25 closes tonight for the whole weekend.
National Highways project leader Jonathan Wade urged people to “find something to do at home” as Britain’s busiest motorway shuts in both directions between junctions 10 and 11 in Surrey from 9pm today.
The stretch will be closed until 6am on Monday, March 18 for demolition works and is thought to affect more than 200,000 vehicles.
Speaking to LBC News, he told Martin Stanford: “Please, if you can either avoid traveling completely, find something to do at home – decorate the bathroom or something, or play in the garden.”
“If you have to go, travel by train, walk, use a bicycle. I don’t really mind what you do.”
There are diversion routes in places near Painshill, Byfleet, West Byfleet and Woking, although the highways boss warned drivers to avoid them unless essential, adding: “It will be in your interests”.
National Highways has warned drivers that the closure in Surrey could affect journeys to Gatwick and Heathrow Airports, as well as the Channel ports.
The section between junctions nine and eleven typically sees 4,000 and 6,000 vehicles per hour in each direction between 10am and 9pm on the weekends.
It’s the first time the M25 will shut down for an entire weekend, and is the first of five instances planned from March to September.
The highways board will use the weekend closure to demolish a bridge between Wisley and Chertsey and install a gantry as part of a £317m project.