With an expected 20 million cars set to travel on UK roads this Bank Holiday weekend, experts at online tyre retailer Blackcircles sent Freedom of Information requests to UK local authorities to determine which areas had the most roadworks, the total number of road closures due to roadworks and the duration of each roadwork project carried out.

Edinburgh takes the longest when conducting roadworks. During 2024, the local authority took 80 calendar days on average to wrap up road work projects, meaning motorists in the area may have experienced a large degree of disturbance on their daily commutes. Of the road closures in Edinburgh last year, there was a group of six nearby roads between Pilrig Park and the Hibernian Football Club ground, Easter Road. These works took 1,278 calendar days (903 working days) to complete.

Newcastle upon Tyne City Council, were in a distant second place, with an average duration of 45 calendar days. There were around 125 road works per 10,000 people during the last calendar year, taking an average of 45 calendar days to complete. The road work taking the longest in the area began in 2023 and is expected to finish in April 2025, totalling 669 calendar days.

The London borough of Southwark takes third place. There were 238 road works in the borough per 10,000 people during the last calendar year, with works taking an average of 34 calendar days to complete. The longest-running road work from 2024 began in 2017 on Snowsfields, it is estimated to finish on the 31st of May 2025, which would have seen it take 2,810 calendar days to complete.

Further findings from the study have revealed:

• Outside of London, Liverpool is the UK city where motorists face the most roadworks. In 2024, 31,765 roadworks were carried out in the northwest city, which is equivalent to 631 per 10,000 people.
• Blackpool is the UK area with the fewest number of roadworks. In 2024, 41 roadworks were carried out, which equates to 3 per 10,000 people.
• In 2024, Birmingham City Council closed 10,463 roads to carry out maintenance. This is equivalent to 90 per 10,000 people, higher than any other local authority.

The full research again by clicking here but if you are stuck in traffic in Edinburgh over the next few days you can’t say you weren’t warned…

(Pic: Yay Images)