WORK is set to begin on a programme of repairs and resurfacing to two of Leicester’s busiest roads – the A5460 Narborough Road and the A607 Melton Road.
Leicester City Council will begin work on Melton Road from Monday 22 July, and will see a length of the busy road – between Marfitt Street and Loughborough Road – completely resurfaced.
Work is expected to take just over two weeks to complete.
To help minimise the disruption to traffic, work will be carried out in three phases and will require road closures.
The first phase will see Melton Road closed between its junctions with Marfitt Street and Acorn Street from Monday 22 to Sunday 28 July, while this stretch of road is resurfaced.
A second phase of work will begin on Saturday 27 July and will require a full road closure between Acorn Street and Doncaster Road, until Friday 2 August.
The third, and final, phase of work will see the stretch of road between Doncaster Road and Copper Street, just past the junction with Loughborough, resurfaced. Again, a full road closure will be required for the duration of works between Thursday 1 and Tuesday 6 August.
Well-signed diversions will in place via Abbey Park Road, Abbey Lane, Red Hill Circle and Watermead Way. All side streets affected by the road closures will have their one-way restrictions suspended to allow vehicles to enter and exit.
Work to resurface part of Narborough Road, between Winchester Avenue and Dumbleton Avenue, is expected to get under way from Saturday 3 August for about 15 days. Full details will be publicised nearer the time.
City Mayor Peter Soulsby said: “These two major resurfacing schemes will deal with ageing and damaged road surfaces which are badly in need of repair.
“These are very busy and important routes in and out of the city and that’s why major investment in improving and prolonging the life of the carriageway surface is so important.
“We understand that any roadworks cause disruption, and but these works are essential to ensure that our roads remain able to handle modern traffic demands for many years to come.”
Martin Fletcher, Leicester City Council director of highways said: “Additional government funding means that we able to carry out major resurfacing and make a real long-term difference to these two important routes in and out of the city.
“We regularly receive local queries about both roads, which are suffering badly from cracking, rutting and general wear and tear and are badly in need of repair.
“The work has been planned over the summer break, when we know roads are less busy but the very nature of the resurfacing planned means there will be disruption to traffic. We will be working hard to keep this to a minimum by completely the works as quickly as possible. Well-signed diversions will be in place, but we would advise drivers to expect delays and take an alternative route if possible.”