See all the work undertaken to demolish and renovate part the M27 so far with "rapid progress" being made

Hampshire County Council has shared a timelapse video of all the engineering work which has been completed so far on the M27. The motorway is closed in both directions between junctions 9 and 11 until the morning of January 4.

Engineers are conducting a county first operation involving a box slide, which will form part of an underpass on the motorway. The local authority said: “Hampshire’s first ’box slide’ engineering operation is officially in action.

“Starting this afternoon, the complex task of sliding a large concrete structure 65 meters into place beneath the motorway got underway. This relies on cutting edge, precision technology with an allowance of just millimetres.

“Once in place, the structure will form a new underpass, part of a new ’all moves’ junction that will open in late 2026 to significantly improve access to the M27, creating smoother, safer journeys in this area of Hampshire. The timelapse shows the rapid progress made by teams on site working 24/7 since Christmas Eve to prepare for the box slide stage in the construction programme.”

Sign up for The News’ free emails and let the day’s headlines come to you

The project involves removing roughly 24,000 m³ of material - enough to fill about 10 Olympic-sized swimming pools, with engineers removing the motorway surface by 3.30am on the morning of Christmas Day. Once the major upgrade at junction 10 is complete, traffic will be able to enter and exit in both directions, with only one way being possible beforehand.

The box slide involves moving a giant pre-constructed concrete structure weighing approximately 8,500 tonnes into a trench cut into the motorway embankment. This will create a new carriageway beneath the motorway as part of a £100m plus scheme. The motorway will be fully reconstructed above it.

A large housing development, the 6,000-home Welborne Garden Village, prompted the need for the works.