M4 road closures today & tonight

Updated 14:51 UK time, Friday 16 October 2026. The live feeds are checked every five minutes.

No live incident closures on the M4 right now, but 1 roadwork is currently in force.

5 closures are scheduled tonight (18:00 to 06:00).

Is the M4 closed? Live updates from National Highways and Traffic Wales: accidents and emergency closures happening today, overnight closures tonight, roadworks in force and planned closures for the week ahead, filterable by direction.

Live incident

Active roadworks

Planned

Cleared

Hover or tap markers for full details

M4 closures tonight

Closures starting between 18:00 on Friday 16 October and 06:00 the next morning (UK time), including any already in force.

No closures in this direction tonight.

M4 roadworks in force now

M4 eastbound Jct 18 to 17 - hard shoulder closure (166/2 to 161/4)

Active Roadworks National Highways

South Gloucestershire M4 · M4 Eastbound Between J18 And J17

Expected to clear in 3 hours 8 minutes

Started 16 Oct 2026, 06:41 Expected clear 16 Oct 2026, 18:00

M4 eastbound Jct 18 to 17 - hard shoulder closure (166/2 to 161/4)

Category: Road Maintenance

View update

None in this direction right now.

Recently cleared on the M4

M4 closure history: the last 12 months

Since 16 October 2025, 2,269 closures have been recorded on the M4: 2,269 planned roadworks and 0 unplanned incidents. 93% started overnight (18:00 to 06:00), and a typical closure lasted 8 hours 45 minutes. The busiest stretch was J17 to J18 (179 closures), and Tuesday was the busiest day of the week.

Roadworks & planned closures: 2,269
Unplanned incidents: 0
Started overnight: 93%
Typical duration: 8 hours 45 minutes; Average 8 hours 15 minutes

Busiest M4 sections

J17 to J18 179
J22 to J23 178
J16 to J17 167
J18 to J19 151
J12 to J13 115

When closures happen

Busiest day: Tuesday
Busiest month: July 2026 (291)
Overnight closures: 2,106

Busiest months: July 2026 (291), August 2026 (265), September 2026 (230).

Closures by direction

Eastbound: 2,027
Westbound: 202
Clockwise: 40

M4 crash history

1,152 injury collisions were recorded on the M4 between 2021 and 2025: 36 fatal, 171 serious and 945 slight, involving 1,746 casualties. The Department for Transport publishes STATS19 once a year, so 2025 is the latest year available and today's crashes appear above as live incidents instead.

Collisions: 1,152
Fatal: 36
Serious: 171
Slight: 945

M4 crash history: map & every recorded collision

M4 closures: your questions answered

Is the M4 closed today?

Yes. As of 14:51 UK time the M4 has 1 roadwork in force, including roadworks (eastbound, J17 to J18). Check the list above for each closure and its expected reopening time.

Is the M4 closed tonight?

Yes, 5 closures on the M4 are scheduled to start between 18:00 on Friday 16 October and 06:00 the next morning, including roadworks (eastbound, J17 to J18) from 20:00; roadworks (eastbound, J15) from 20:00; roadworks (eastbound, J13 to J14) from 21:00.

Why is the M4 closed?

Current M4 closures are for roadworks, construction work, maintenance work. Over the last 12 months, 100% of the 2,269 closures recorded on the M4 were planned roadworks and none were unplanned incidents; 93% started overnight.

Where does this data come from?

Live M4 closures come from the National Highways road closure feed for England's motorways and major A roads and from Traffic Wales, checked every five minutes. Closure history is built from that feed's archive. Collision figures come from the Department for Transport's STATS19 road safety data, which is published once a year, so recent crashes appear here as live incidents long before they reach the official statistics.

All live closures M4 closure archive M4 crash history