Work on the A49 has resumed today, Friday, July 26th, after it was postponed yesterday due to the hot weather.

Highways England told the Ross Gazette that they will carry out the resurfacing work between the A40 and the A4317, as quickly as possible.

They have assured local business owners that access to businesses and residences within the closure will be maintained and vehicles will be escorted through at 5mph to protect the workforce.

Highways England senior project manager, Jessica Kenny, said:

“We understand people’s frustrations. We’ve planned this work to minimise disruption as far as possible and it was decided to carry out the first phase of work during the day to minimise night time noise disruption.

“We worked closely with the local authority and parish council in our planning and informed businesses prior to starting.

“We’ll aim to complete this as quickly as possible and thank residents and businesses for their patience.”

Any vehicles requiring access to businesses or residences outside of the closure will be required to use the diversion.

Highways England said that the route affected is approximately 3.5 miles and usually takes 6 minutes to travel through. The route from the A49 down the A4137 and up the A40 to the A49 is approximately 10 miles and usually takes 14 minutes to travel through. This results in a net delay of around 8 minutes.

Highways England will be adding additional signage to inform motorists of the time to travel the diversion.UPDATE 26/7/19 11.52am: Highways England have confirmed that the road resurfacing scheme has been split into five phases, each approximately 1km long. Any motorist needing to access a residential property or a business property within each phase will be escorted through the works at 5mph. If residents/businesses are the other side of the phase, not inside the closure, they will be directed around the diversion route to approach their properties from that side. A spokesperson said: "The diversion route adds no more than eight to 10 minutes to journey times. The spokeperson also confirmed that although work was scheduled to finish on August 16th issues this week mean the work is expected to take slightly longer but they are trying to keep this delay to a minimum.