Motorway misery as M25 crumbles in heat HAULIERS FACED hours
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of delays on Sunday when part of the M25 crumbled and lifted in soaring temperatures, forcing the Highways Agency (HA) to close the road.
The closure came as roads minister Stephen Hammond admitted the government had underinvested in roads for decades, costing the economy about £2bn a year in time lost to congestion.
Part of the clockwise road at junction 23 (Potters Bar) crumbled at about 3pm on Sunday as temperatures in the shade reached 30C. The motorway was closed until 5.30am the next day for resurfacing. Drivers from NFT's St Albans depot took two to three hours to make what is normally a 30-minute trip to Sainsbury's Waltham Point DC near junction 26, which affect ed their drivers' hours.
Dr Howard Robinson, chief executive of the Road Surface Treatments Association, said that most roads carrying a reasonable amount of traffic will start softening in surface temperatures of 50C, but this can vary depending on what the roads are made of. "Asphalt is like chocolate — it melts and softens when it's hot, and goes hard and brittle when it's cold — it doesn't maintain the same strength all year round," he said.
He said it was unlikely Potters Bar was made of polymer modified asphalt, which has a softening point at around 80C, "which is why it became rutted or rigid".
During a speech to the Westminster Energy, Environment and Transport Forum last week, Hammond said the government planned to resurface 80% of the UK's roads.