This page lists the M42 closures we are aware of for tonight — whole carriageways, slip roads and the links to other motorways — taken from National Highways’ planned works. If you drive the M42 late in the evening or overnight, this is the page to check before you set off.

Why overnight closures on the M42 need care

On the M42 an overnight closure may affect a link to another motorway rather than the main carriageway, and those links carry a lot of traffic on their own. The Department for Transport’s 2025 counts show about 54,600 vehicles a day on the link from the M5 into the M42, and around 70,000 on the short counted link at the M40 interchange. A closed link can send you a long way round.

Links that are worth checking by name

• M5 Junction 4A — where the M42 starts. The southbound M42 splits here for the M5 north towards Birmingham and the M6, and the M5 south towards Worcester.
• Junction 3A — the M40 interchange, signed for Warwick, Stratford and London.
• Junctions 7, 7A, 8 and 9 — the links to the M6 and the M6 Toll. Several of these are one-way connections, so a closure may only affect one direction.
• Junction 11 — the end of the motorway, where it becomes the A42.

Junction 5A and the airport

Junction 5A, opened in December 2024, is a northbound exit and a southbound on-slip for the A4545 to Birmingham Airport, the NEC and Birmingham Business Park. Junction 6 on the A45 is the other junction for the airport; if you are travelling to or from an early flight, check both.

Reading a closure notice

A closure notice gives the junctions, the direction, the start and end times, and, where National Highways supplies it, the signed diversion. Times are planned times and works can finish earlier. Where nothing is shown for tonight, nothing has been published that we are aware of.

For works that run across several nights or weeks, see M42 roadworks. For anything unplanned, see M42 accidents and incidents.

Heading beyond the M42?

A night closure on the M42 is sometimes part of a wider programme on a neighbouring road. Check M40 traffic, M6 traffic or M5 traffic if your trip continues onto them.

Traffic count figures on this page are from the Department for Transport road traffic statistics, 2025.