Drivers are breathing a sigh of relief at seeing the back of a string of dreaded weekend closures of the M2.

Chaos ensued on the roads once again on Saturday and Sunday as National Highways enforced yet another closure between Junction 7 for Faversham and Junction 5 for Sittingbourne.

Eight-mile queues and four-hour delays left the two towns as no-go zones.

At Boughton, a fed-up driver was captured on video reversing back down the A2 in an attempt to get off at the previous junction.

Niall Greathead, who took the video, said: "People are losing the plot and breaking the law.

"They were reversing past us to go down the turning for Boughton. Me and my dad looked in horror at each other. There was another one coming up the left hand side of us and going the wrong way.

"I was like 'what's going on here?'"

As with the previous weekend closures this summer, motorists were sent on an official 70-mile diversion around east and central Kent.

Most opted to head down the A2 or try their luck on the A251, A249 and surrounding country roads.

The full closure of the London-bound stretch from Friday night until Monday morning was to allow for contractors to finish bridge repair works on the motorway.

National Highways described the work - which coincided with Saturday's train cancellations - as "critical".

Several people took to social media to criticise highways bosses for not better advertising the closures, saying they would not have made the journey if they had known.

One woman tweeted to say she’d been stuck at Brenley Corner for four hours with two babies in the car. Others in Canterbury said they’d been stuck for a similar amount of time.

Temporary traffic lights on the A2 in Sittingbourne added to the chaos and incidents at Bobbing and a lorry crash near to Gate Services heightened the congestion misery.

Matthew Arnold, commercial director for Stagecoach South East, tweeted: "More @HighwaysSEAST inspired nonsense this weekend with a full westbound closure of the #M2 J5-7 on top of the long term eastbound slip closures at J5. Faversham & Canterbury gridlocked.

"Is anyone ever going to take this seriously?"

The first of the six weekend closures started in May. The scheduled work is now at last complete, meaning no more M2 closures are planned.