Hi there,

Does anyone know of a good website for planning a route, but specifying the time of travel?  Basically I’m looking to travel from Nottingham to the south coast overnight, but want to avoid any closures on the way.

I’ve tried highways England but I can only look one motorway at a time, and it lists loads of stuff as “unconfirmed” which isn’t that useful..

Cheers

Keith

Google maps lets you specify preferred departure or arrival time and normally flags roadworks and other delays

I use this one

But most sites are only as good as the most recent update.

Google maps isn’t showing any roadworks, which is frankly suspicious given I’m traveling down a large chunk of the M5!

Thanks though, didn’t know you could do that on Google maps…  Duh…

if you just want to check what roadworks are planned take a look at https://one.network/ – I think it’ll show up to 2 weeks ahead for unregistered users, up to a year if you sign up.

Google maps isn’t showing any roadworks, which is frankly suspicious given I’m traveling down a large chunk of the M5!

I did almost the full length of the M5 10 days ago….. No roadworks.

Google maps lets you specify preferred departure or arrival time and normally flags roadworks and other delays

Not always – most of my long distance driving I do at night and quite routinely Google will sort me a route and then half way down it will adjust as it realises a road is closed. Had a nightmare with roadworks closures on the M1 a couple of weeks ago compounded by a junction closure on the M40 so I couldn’t hop across.

In my experience, and as others have mentioned, One.network is the most comprehensive I’ve found. Its straightforward to set up alerts on specific streets and also areas.

https://highwaysengland.co.uk/travel-updates/road-closure-report/

This is my go-to for motorway closures. It’s quite hard to navigate in my opinion (I’d like to be able to put a route in and have it say whether or not I can do it at night) but once you wrap your head around it then it isn’t too bad.

I end up having Google Maps open in another tab because I missed the lesson at school where we learned all the junction numbers by heart.

I end up having Google Maps open in another tab because I missed the lesson at school where we learned all the junction numbers by heart.

Yeah, those overhead signs saying “closed at J12” or “A123 closed after A234”
WHERE ARE THESE ROADS?! Destination? Direction?

One thing that sat nav has done is remove a lot of the spatial awareness of drivers (including me!) and you just end up following a line with no idea of road names or numbers.

Overnight lane closures are often ad hoc to fix things like holes and barrier repairs after crashes. Usually down to 40 / 50 mph which wont really slow you down.

One thing that sat nav has done is remove a lot of the spatial awareness of drivers (including me!) and you just end up following a line with no idea of road names or numbers.

This is very true, but I also now wonder how I ever managed to look at the big flappy map book while driving.

Probably because my eyesight was much better back then, actually.

Not always – most of my long distance driving I do at night and quite routinely Google will sort me a route and then half way down it will adjust as it realises a road is closed. Had a nightmare with roadworks closures on the M1 a couple of weeks ago compounded by a junction closure on the M40 so I couldn’t hop across

This is more likely down to your driving. Google works on average time taken for a journey so if you’re averaging 60 on the motor way closures it expected you to be clear of before they came oni force will start to be an issue, equally average 80 and you’ll be clear before they come in or you’ll hit closures that should have been removed because your going to arrive at them sooner than expected.

I often get the former when driving vehicles with a non 70 limit over night. Obviously if you’re towing you’ll also have extensive experience of this.

OP, assume the unconfirmed bit is a no if you’re looking same day. The permit has been applied for and granted is just the contractor hasn’t confirmed to highways England they’ll actually be there, which they need to do, before commencing work.