MOTORISTS are facing up to more road misery with a series of lane closures set to disrupt journey times as engineers prepare for a £50 million project to try and ease congestion.

Essex County Council will be undergoing investigation works on Cowdray Avenue, Ipswich Road roundabout, St Andrew’s Avenue and Harwich Road roundabout between Saturday, July 30 and Thursday, August 18.

Single lane closures will be introduced in phases while workmen dig boreholes and trenches on the carriageway and nearby pavements.

The works will eventually lead to the Cowdray Avenue railway bridge being replaced and double roundabouts at Harwich Road and Ipswich Road being replaced with single roundabouts.

Part of the project is to add an extra lane of traffic between roundabouts at Colne Bank Avenue and The Albert. Work began last week and expected to continue for another six months.

No lane closures have begun yet, but are expected to start next month.

This week drivers have been battling with emergency roadworks on the junction of Cowdray Avenue and Catchpool Road as National Grid engineers attempt to fix a gas leak.

Temporary traffic lights have been installed and are expected to be in place until next Thursday.

Long delays have already been reported during busy periods and are likely to continue until the leak can be fixed.

Chairman of Colchester and District Driving Instructor Association Mark Cole said he supported the council’s project but said he thought more forward planning was required.

He said: “It is going impact on people getting from A to B, doing day to day things and getting on with their lives.

“Generally I leave 15 minutes between each lesson but with this it is going to be more like half an hour which will extend my working day.

“I think the council should think about opening up North Station Road to all cars at times like these - there are stretches of road which are wasted.

“There are roadworks in Colchester constantly - it never seems to stop.

“The work needs to be done to cope with the amount of development but there has to be more thought.”