A HAMPSHIRE motorway was plagued with roadworks for all but ten days of last year.

It has been revealed that the M27 was hardly ever fully open – leaving hundreds of thousands of motorists facing 355 days of delays.

Figures obtained under a Freedom of Information request revealed that lane closures held up motorists on part of the 28-mile stretch of carriageway for almost all of 2013, making it one of the country’s worst motorways for closures.

The queues look set to continue this year as work began this week to improve bottlenecks on junction five at Swaythling.

More roadworks will start next month on junction three as the main route into Southampton from the motorway as part of the Government’s national pinch point programme.

The £8m makeover to junction five and £2.3m scheme at junction three will see additional lanes created and add more traffic lights on the roundabouts of both junctions. But it will leave commuters facing eight months of delays on the busy Hampshire motorway which links Southampton and Portsmouth.

AA spokesman Luke Bosdet said: “The M27 is a critical piece of road dealing with some major cities and acting as a link road for taking traffic into the interior of the country.

“In that respect large amounts of disruption will cost both businesses and drivers in general.

“One can only hope that the amount of roadworks that there have been has produced a benefit which will mean that businesses and drivers will be able to see a more efficient and more productive network.”

Despite only being fully open for less than two weeks last year, the M27 was not the UK’s worst.

According to the figures obtained from the Highways Agency by motor insurer swiftcover.com, the M1, M4, M5, M6, M25, M60 in north west England and M54 in Shropshire and Staffordshire had closures every day.