MOTORISTS will face delays for two months at one of East Lancashire’s busiest bottlenecks, but should benefit from a new lane onto the A56.

Road engineers from the Highways Agency are planning to create a protected lane linking the westbound M65 with the A56 at the motorway’s junction eight at Hapton.

Drivers are being warned to take care after at least one shunt between two cars along the A-road last weekend, where the carriageway had been reduced to a single lane, which caused considerable tailbacks.

It is hoped that the £760,000 project will improve safety for vehicles travelling south along the A56 and reduce congestion at the junction.

The ‘free flow’ lane will last for 200 yards, commencing on the slip road itself and continuing onto the Rossendale and Manchester-bound road itself.

Operations will take place chiefly overnight and at weekends and an anticipated finish date of the end of March has been given. Highways Agency project sponsor John Mather said: “These segregated left turns work well in other parts of the region’s motorway network and at this part of the M65 will ease drivers’ entry onto the A56.

“The new arrangements will also mean separating drivers joining the dual carriageway from different directions of the roundabout, so it will also make this junction safer.

“It is possible that we will need to close parts of the roundabout during the work.

"If we do have to close any part of the roundabout we will do it when it will have the least impact on traffic.”

An estimated 60,000 drivers use junction eight each day so the works will usually start overnight at 9pm and end at 5am on weekday and last from 8pm to 10.30am at weekends.

The east and westbound lanes of the M65 will be affected, as will the north and southbound directions of the A56 and a 50mph speed limit will be in force.

Later parts of the works could also impact on the A6068 Padiham and Sabden road.