The M5 is predicted to be “one of the worst roads for delays in the country” throughout the bank holiday weekend.
The motorway had more than 30 miles of tailbacks between Bristol and Taunton, Somerset, earlier as people travelled south for the weekend.
Traffic monitoring site Inrix showed travel time between junction J16 (The M4 interchange) and J20 (Clevedon) at about 80 minutes for several hours, but this has now cleared.
A National Highways spokesperson said the “severe delays” of more than an hour were due to “to the sheer volume of traffic”. More delays are expected Saturday.
RAC Breakdown spokesperson Alice Simpson said: “With the end of the school holidays fast approaching it seems day trips will be the main cause of traffic this weekend, so for many drivers it could be a case of ‘day trip delays’.”
New research from the RAC shows the weekend is due to be the busiest August Bank Holiday in nine years with an estimated 19.2 million leisure journeys taken by car.
The breakdown service is expecting the M5 to be “one of the worst roads for delays in the country” on both Friday and Saturday, specifically southbound between J15 and J23, as well northbound between J25 and J15 on Monday with returning traffic.