Businesses are already feeling the effects of a town centre road closure which is causing havoc for drivers across Colchester.

On Tuesday, Essex Highways started a four week closure of the southernmost section of Ipswich Road, between its junctions with St Andrew’s Avenue and Fenwick Drive, a stretch of around 70m.

Drivers heading to the town centre face an official diversion of 2.66 miles, which includes some of Colchester’s busiest streets along the way.

Gazette:

A map showing the official diversion route

The works form part of a £10 million scheme to revamp the roundabouts on Ipswich and Harwich Road, which is set to pile 15 months of roadworks misery on drivers.

Bahaskr Patel, owner of My Convenience, said there have been queues outside the business since the works started.

“East Street is probably the area most affected by the closure and a lot of extra traffic is now coming down here,” he said.

“I am probably losing at least £100 a day from customers because at the moment there is no way they can just stop and come in to the shop.

“I expect all the businesses nearby have been affected as well.”

Christie Wettasinghe, manager of taxi firm Hawaii Five-O, said his drivers have labelled the works “absolutely diabolical”.

He added: “One driver told me today it took an hour to get through the traffic.

“The problem is, it is hard to tell if the traffic is going to be really bad until it is too late.

“We have asked our customers to understand we are taking less bookings and journeys may take longer.

“Any cars in that area can become stuck and people need to be aware of the problem.”

Several buses have had to be rerouted and temporary stops introduced, but First Essex said it is still operating a full service across the borough although some delays were expected.

An Essex Highways spokesman said: “If we left the road partially open under two-way traffic lights the work would be much slower, causing traffic delays for a much longer time.

“Our official diversion is designed to include the most appropriate roads, but we can’t stop those with knowledge from using other roads.

“There are many signs at the key points around the works and on the diversion, to try to help drivers avoid the worst congestion.

"We understand the works may cause problems for some drivers and potentially businesses too, but all we can do is work to minimise these difficulties, including doing the work as quickly as possible to be able to reopen the road.”