National Highways has apologized after “unexpected problems” caused motorists to see random lane closure signs on sections of England’s smart motorway.
Problems have been reported by drivers on the M6, M1 and A1(M), with “mile after mile” of lane closure warnings and “illegible” overhead signs.
Speed limits have been introduced on some routes and additional traffic controls have been introduced.
National Highways’ Andrew Page-Dove said: “We apologize for any inconvenience.”
The agency said the problems began around 2:30pm BST on Wednesday and lasted until almost midnight.
Smart highways use technology to regulate the flow of traffic with signs notifying motorists of speed limits and lane closures.
Some use the hard shoulder as an extra lane, but critics claim this has resulted in road deaths.
On social media, drivers complained about portal signs with two different speed limits and false lane closures, while others were so bright they “obstructed night vision.”
Mr Page-Dove said: “As with any technology, failures do occasionally occur and as such we have well-established procedures to deal with any problems that arise.
“We have taken additional measures to limit the impact on drivers or traffic flow, including additional traffic officer patrols and virtual CCTV patrols.
“We have decided to reset the systems to ensure that any bugs are fixed as soon as possible.”
At the end of 2020 there were 369 miles of smart motorways in England, including 168 miles without hard shoulders.
According to government figures from the BBC Panorama in 2020, 38 people were killed on smart highways between 2014 and 2019.
Rotherham Labor MP Sarah Champion said she had repeatedly told the Government that smart highways were “fundamentally unsafe”.
Jason Mercer, a member of Ms Champion, was killed in an accident on a stretch of the M1 smart motorway near Sheffield in June 2019.
“No amount of technology can mitigate the risk of removing huge sections of hard shoulder,” said Ms. Champion.
“The thought that security technology is unreliable chills me, which further increases the inherent risks. I am appalled that public safety could be endangered by National Highways’ failure to keep safety installations operational and have raised this repeatedly with successive Ministers.”
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