Smart Motorway gantry sign
A gantry structure spanning the motorway with electronic signals, blue signs showing an exit and the following text.
Exit destinations: A608 Heanor, Hucknall.
Forward destinations: The SOUTH, London, Nottingham M1.
Junction number: 27.
This length of M1, between junctions 28 and 25, was widened in the early 2000s in a sort of final hurrah of the conventional motorway widening programme. It's now part of a much longer Smart Motorway, but it has lighting throughout and full hard shoulders, which makes it feel like something from another era.