​The ten most congested roads in County Durham have been revealed in a recent study about the roads that are used across the region and how many cars use them per day.

Cromwell Trucks and Online Marketing Surgery have created their Road Delay Report, which helped rank roads in County Durham based on their delays. This determines where people are waiting the most/least on their travels.

The recent data around road delays in England was taken from GOV.UK, where it was motorways/major A roads. It looks at how many seconds a vehicle is held up per mile travelled on average.

Here are the results from the study on the most congested roads in County Durham:

  • A1(M) northbound between J63 and J64 (15.5 Seconds per vehicle per mile)
  • A66 westbound between A1(M) and A67 near Bowes (12.9 Seconds per vehicle per mile)
  • A66 westbound between A67 near Bowes and A68 (9.5 Seconds per vehicle per mile)
  • A19 southbound between A182 near Easington and A1086 (8 Seconds per vehicle per mile)
  • A1(M) northbound within J63 (7.7 Seconds per vehicle per mile)
  • A19 southbound between A182 near Murton and A182 near Easington (7.3 Seconds per vehicle per mile)
  • A66 eastbound between A67 near Bowes and A1(M) (7.2 Seconds per vehicle per mile)
  • A19 northbound between B1320 and A1086 (7 Seconds per vehicle per mile)
  • A66 westbound between A67 near Bowes and A685 (7 Seconds per vehicle per mile)
  • A19 northbound between A181 and B1320 (6.7 Seconds per vehicle per mile)

This data comes after a study in March this year, which showed that delays on England’s major roads exceeded pre-pandemic levels last year despite a reduction in traffic, Department for Transport (DfT) figures show.

The RAC described the data as “very concerning” and urged the Government to provide “sufficient funds” to tackle the causes of congestion.

DfT statistics show the average delay on England’s strategic road network (SRN) – motorways and major A-roads – last year was 10.5 seconds per vehicle per mile (spvpm).

That is up from 9.3 seconds in 2022 and 9.5 seconds in 2019, before the coronavirus crisis.

The average speed on the SRN in 2023 was 57.0mph, down from 58.1mph during the previous year and 58.0mph in 2019.

Separate DfT figures show the amount of traffic on Britain’s motorways in the year to the end of September was 1.4% below 2019 levels, with traffic on A-roads down 3.5%.

RAC head of policy Simon Williams said: “It’s very concerning to see delays on our most important roads increasing to above pre-pandemic levels and average speeds dropping.

“With more people than ever working from home at least part of the week and no growth in the number of cars on the road since then, we’re struggling to see what the cause can be other than roadworks.

“We’re aware safety concerns relating to the all-lane-running smart motorway experiment have required lots of retrofitting of emergency refuge areas which has limited capacity on these key routes.

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“While this is necessary, it is frustrating as it could easily have been avoided had the distance between them not been quietly reduced as more schemes were rolled out over the years.

“Given today’s disappointing findings, it’s more important than ever that National Highways, which is responsible for the strategic road network, is given sufficient funds in the next five-year road investment settlement to tackle these issues head-on.

“This is just about to be agreed so time is of the essence.”