A major motorway will be partially closed to motorists next weekend.

The M4 westbound between Junction 11 for Reading and Junction 12 for Theale will be closed next week.

National Highways have already began overnight works on the stretch of road, which will continue until early June.

On Saturday, April 27 and Sunday, April 28, the stretch will be closed entirely from 9pm on the Saturday until 6am on Monday, April 29.

The motorway services will be shut too.

A spokesperson from National Highways said: "Please plan ahead as a diversion will be in place, which will be very busy."

It comes days after National Highways announced they would be adding new 'safe zones' to smart motorways in the region.

READ MORE: M4 lane closures to look out for as smart motorway safety work set to begin

The Government has committed £390m over the duration of the second Road Investment Strategy to roll out an emergency area retrofit programme - which will add 150 emergency areas to motorways.

National Highways has said: "On motorways that don’t have a permanent hard shoulder, there are emergency areas which offer a place to stop in an emergency if you cannot exit the motorway or stop at a motorway service area.

"They are marked by blue signs featuring an orange SOS telephone symbol. Each is coloured orange and is around the same length as a football pitch. They are positioned at regular intervals, providing somewhere safe to stop and have phones linked directly to our control rooms."

Once complete, the stretch between junctions 8/9 and 12 in Berkshire will have twelve new emergency areas.