Extra lane closures Shrewsbury's Meole Brace roundabout

Contractors are currently on site as work continues to build a cut-through road across the island as part of the £12 million Shrewsbury Integrated Transport Package.

Initial lane closures came into force last month and now phase three, which will close a section of the roundabout at the Hereford Road junction, will see new closures and diversions in place for three weeks.

Simon Jones, cabinet member for highways and transport, encouraged drivers to avoid the area if at all possible.

He said: "The work at Meole Brace will ensure the roundabout continues to function after the vast development along Oteley Road is complete, and with the predicted additional users of the route.

"Additional safety benefits will also be added, such as a dedicated foot and cycle route to prevent some of the numerous cycle accidents that have occurred, and to make it safer for football fans to visit the Greenhous Meadow or for shoppers to visit the retail park, with additional signal-controlled crossings also being installed.

"We continue to encourage drivers to use an alternative route whenever possible – something that will be increasingly important when the partial closure of the roundabout to circulating traffic from Monday to Friday comes into effect."

The section of roundabout at Hereford Road will be closed, meaning drivers will have to drive up to the retail park roundabout and come back down to the Meole Brace roundabout to complete a full circuit.

The closures will be in place from 10pm on a Sunday to 4pm on a Friday, with lanes reopening at weekends. They will be in force for about three weeks, until March 31.

The changes to Meole Brace roundabout are part of the £12m Shrewsbury Integrated Transport Package, which will see work carried out to improve four major junctions around the town's 'inner bypass', the English Bridge Gyratory, Reabrook roundabout and Longden Coleham.

As part of the SITP, a number of improvements are also planned for Shrewsbury's town centre in an effort to make it more attractive and appealing for pedestrians.

Earlier this week, Councillor Jon Tandy said the fact traffic was flowing well with traffic lights switched off at the Meole Brace roundabout proves they are not needed and are "a waste of money".

He said: "We are cutting social services, swimming pools and every service you can think of, they are wasting money on roads and traffic lights that are not needed."