Motorists should brace themselves for a weekend of traffic misery as major roadworks, motorway closures and rail strikes overlap.

National Highways bosses say they recognise there may be "additional inconvenience to road users and local communities", but stress how road improvement need to be carried out before autumn weather. kicks in.

The first of the closures this weekend will see the M20 shut in both directions between Junction 11 for Westenhanger and Junction 10A for Ashford.

The M20 is to be shut in both directions between Junction 11 for Westenhanger and Junction 10A for Ashford to allow for bridge work.

The London-bound carriageway will be shut from 9pm tonight until 5am on Monday, while the coastbound side will reopen at 5am tomorrow

There will however be a 50mph limit and only two lanes in operation.

Drivers will then still face the usual 50mph restriction up to Junction 8.

Elsewhere, the A249 heading towards Maidstone between Bobbing and the Stockbury roundabout will be closed from 8pm tonight until 5am on Monday.

The full weekend closure comes as two slip roads on the M2 remain shut until January.

From Monday, September 12, until Friday, January 13, drivers will not be able to access the roundabout from the M2 coastbound and vice versa.

Motorists are unable to use the coastbound entry or exit slip roads at Junction 5 for Sittingbourne.

Tonight's introduction of the southbound A249 closure is the first five consecutive weekends, before five weekends of closures on the northbound side begin.

National Highways states: "We know having additional closures while the slip roads are shut is not ideal, but we need to do this work to move onto the next phase of construction and keep our project on track.

"We’ll be working 24 hours a day to allow us to carry out as much work as possible during the closures."

This weekend, for drivers heading south (towards Maidstone) from the Bobbing roundabout, there will be a diversion in place via Sheppey Way, Chestnut Street and Maidstone Road. They will then be able to join Stockbury roundabout.

Roadworks on the A2 at Sittingbourne will continue to cause hold-ups, and Ashford is set to remain a great frustration to drivers due to the long-running closure of Kennington Road.

The major closures on the roads comes as 30,000 members of the RMT Union go on strike on Saturday.

'Work like this gets planned months in advance - it requires careful planning and coordination...'

Industrial action has disrupted rail services for months, and unions are no closer to reaching an agreement with Network Rail.

Southeastern warns passengers to only travel is absolutely necessary. Only 44 out of the network's 180 stations will be open and no rail replacement buses will serve stations that are closed.

The last trains back from London will leave much earlier than usual.

Closures on the M20 and A249 are likely to cause problems for those heading up to Brands Hatch on Saturday and Sunday.

The finale of the British Touring Car Championship is expected to see about 30,000 descend on the circuit over the weekend.

National Highways programme delivery manager, Graeme Steward, said: “Work like this gets planned months in advance. It requires careful planning and coordination, arrangements with contractors, materials, road closures amongst other things.

"We recognise that we are carrying out this work at the same time as the recently announced rail strikes and that this may cause additional inconvenience to road users and local communities.

“The nature of the work being carried out means we have to complete it before the autumn weather starts, and it has been planned well in advance with our supply chain and other partners in Kent Highways.