A MULTI-MILLION pound jam-busting project transforming a Hampshire motorway is due to start on Monday.

The project is set to improve a section of the M3 comes just one week after work began on the second phase of a project to improve traffic on the M27, as previously reported by the Daily Echo.

The £174m, two-year makeover will see workmen create a fourth lane in both direction and add enhanced on-road technology to prevent traffic jams between junctions two and four of the M3 between the M25 and Farnborough at the north of the county.

The road will also be resurfaced with a new low noise material.

The Highways Agency said the project is due to be completed by the end of 2016, with workmen on sight day and night, mostly on weekdays.

Highways Agency project manager Pranav Devale said: “This busy section of the M3 is used for more than 130,000 journeys every day, and these vital improvements will add much needed extra capacity. Smart motorways are a safe, cost effective solution for improving journeys.”

The work comes just days after workmen arrived at junction three of the M27, which leads to the M271 for the second part of a project to improve the motorway.

Daily Echo:

Cones arrived on site on Monday for the £2.3m project to widen the slip road off the westbound carriageway and the M271 approaches, which is part of the Government's £300m “pinch point” programme to remove bottlenecks on the nation's roads.

Workers will create a third lane on the slip road off the westbound carriageway of the M27 as well as the northbound and southbound approaches to junction on the M271, along with additional traffic lights.

They will also replace the hard shoulder on the eastern side of the roundabout with a third lane to ease traffic on the roundabout heading into Southampton from Romsey or the eastbound M27.

Work started on a similar £8m project at junction five of the M27, towards Eastleigh, this summer.