1. When safety or traffic flow warrants it, a change in traffic direction may be ordered by the competent authority, the total or partial restriction of access to parts of the road, either in general, for certain vehicles or users, the closing of certain routes, obligatory diversions or the use of hard shoulders or lanes in the opposite direction to that normally foreseen (article 16.1 of the articulated text).
2. In order to avoid traffic jams and ensure traffic flow, restrictions or limitations may be imposed on certain vehicles and specific routes, which will be mandatory for the users affected (article 16.2 of the articulated text).
3.The closure of a road covered by the legislation on traffic, flow of motor vehicles and road safety will only be carried out on an exceptional basis and must be expressly authorised by the autonomous body Central Traffic Headquarters or, as the case may be, by the autonomous or local authority responsible for regulating traffic, unless it is caused by physical deficiencies of the infrastructure or by carrying out works on it; in this case the authority will be the owner of the road, who should whenever possible, authorise an alternative route and its signalling. The closing and opening to traffic must be executed, in any case, by the agents of the authority responsible for the surveillance and discipline of the traffic or of the personnel dependent on the body responsible for the operation. The competent authorities who authorise the road closure are to publish information of the closures they have agreed upon.
4. The autonomous body Central Traffic Headquarters or, where appropriate, the regional or local authority responsible for regulating traffic, as well as the bodies responsible for the roads, may impose restrictions or limitations on traffic for reasons of road safety or traffic flow, at the request of the owner of the road or other entities, such as concession companies of toll roads, and the petitioner will be obliged to signal the corresponding alternative route set by the traffic authority, throughout its journey.
5. Diversions contrary to those stipulated will be considered a very serious fault.
Travel without the corresponding authorisation through routes subject to restrictions or limitations imposed for reasons of road safety or traffic flow will be sanctioned.