RAWTENSTALL town centre faces further roadworks misery with an 18-week project to improve a junction starting next week.

The scheme at Tup Bridge will affect several routes into the town, including Newchurch Road, Haslingden Old Road, Burnley Road and St Mary’s Way.

Apologising in advance for the disruption, Lancashire County Council said the work would take place outside peak times, from 9am to 3.30pm, and would improve traffic flow.

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David Gould, chairman of Rawtenstall Chamber of Commerce, said it was ‘disappointing’ that traders would be affected again.

Last year, roads surrounding Bank Street, the town’s main shopping area, underwent a £7million sewer upgrade which affected businesses and commuters for almost 12 months.

The latest work is to increase capacity at the junction and will see the addition of a right turn for traffic coming from Burnley Road onto Haslingden Old Road.

The traffic lights are also being upgraded with an ‘intelligent’ system which uses sensors in the road to respond to changes in traffic flow and reduce congestion at peak times.

Mick Dand, the county council’s highways manager for Rossendale, said: “This is a busy junction at peak times and this investment to create extra capacity will help to reduce delays at peak times, particularly as levels of traffic grow in future.

“We’re sorry for the disruption while we carry out the improvements, but during this first phase will only be carrying out work which affects lanes of traffic outside peak times to try to reduce the impact as much as we can. A road closure and diversion will be needed during part of the work and we’re currently finalising the dates and diversion route.

“We are currently in communications about the Reaps Farm wind turbine movements to ensure co-ordination with their rolling road closures.

“We’ll let people know what to expect in due course so they can plan their journeys as we get closer to this phase beginning.”

The first phase of the project will involve one lane of traffic being closed while work is ongoing, with temporary lights in place.