The region's first £90 million smart motorway was opened by roads minister Robert Goodwill hours after motorists faced their third bout of commuter chaos in as many days.
It has been dubbed the "gateway to the South West", but despite the major improvements which took nearly two years to complete, highways chiefs have been powerless to stop the jams caused by a spate of accidents on the motorway network outside Bristol.
The flagship scheme covers seven miles of motorway around the Almondsbury Interchange where the M4 and M5 meet. It was designed to reduce congestion and improve safety and journey times by introducing variable speed limits and opening the hard shoulder during busy periods.
On the morning the minister was due to launch the scheme a crash caused major delays on the same stretch of motorway.
On Tuesday night the same section of the motorway was closed completely because of a vehicle fire, and on Monday morning motorists had to queue for hours after a crash involving a lorry brought traffic to a standstill once again.
Mr Goodwill made no mention of the jams when he officially opened the scheme yesterday and said: "Every day, more than 140,000 vehicles use this section of motorway which is an essential gateway to the South West. That is why the Government has invested almost £90 million to help improve access and traffic flow on this vital route.
"This is the first smart motorway in the region and I'm delighted that road users and businesses will be able to benefit from the improvements earlier than planned."
Work started in January 2012 and the smart motorway was delivered within budget and completed two months ahead of schedule.
Traffic officers in the regional control centre at Avonmouth set new overhead signs to inform drivers they can use the hard shoulder as an extra lane and vary the speed according to conditions.
Highways Agency senior project manager Paul Unwin said there had been positive feedback since the scheme started over Christmas.
He said: "The M4 and M5 scheme demonstrates how a smart and efficient solution can deliver improvements that road users need – more capacity and better management of traffic to reduce congestion and make journey times more reliable. We're pleased to see commuters already experiencing the benefits."
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