Major A road to close over next THREE weekends to build new £460m dual carriageway bypass
The planned roadworks will affect those in Gloucestershire, and national highways are warning summer holidaymakers to plan ahead.
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Planned closures
The A417 in Gloucester will be closed between the Air Balloon roundabout and the A429 Burford roundabout.
The closure will enable work to take place on the so-called 'Missing Link' between Gloucester, Swindon and Cirencester.
An 11-mile stretch will be closed in preparation for a the current single carriageway to be replaced by a new dual carriageway.
Closure dates
Originally, the scheduled work was impacting two weekends; however, a recent update has revealed to locals that there will be more disruption towards the end of the school holidays as well.
The three dates are:
11pm on Friday, July 25 to 6am on Monday, July 28
11pm on Friday, August 1 to 6am on Monday, August 4
11pm on Friday, August 29 to 6am on Monday, September 1
Locals who still need to travel over the weekends have been told that traffic will be diverted via the A435, A40 and A429 to rejoin the A417, both northbound and southbound.
This diversion will add 24 miles to journeys and so travellers have been warned to plan ahead.
Reason for the closures
The scheme to rejuvenate the dual carriageway will see 3.4 miles of new road connecting the existing A417 Brockworth bypass with the existing A417 dual carriageway south of Cowley.
The ultimate aim is for this to connect to the M5 in Gloucestershire and the M4 in Wiltshire.
There will be also new junctions at Shab Hill and Cowley, helping to connect travellers to surrounding areas easily.
The plans will also mean old roads and roundabouts will be repurposed, allowing for sections to become routes for walkers and cyclists.
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National Highways Senior Project Manager Celine Acard said: "We're making good progress on the scheme but to maintain the programme we need to employ the full closures on this section to facilitate essential work on the utilities chambers.
"We fully appreciate that road closures can be frustrating, but we're unable to carry out the work while the road is open to traffic.
"We've planned the diversions to minimise disruption, we're anticipating an additional 25 minutes to drivers' travel time and in the meantime we thank people for their co-operation and patience, and advise people to plan ahead and allow a little extra time for their journeys."
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