Overnight closures for work on Highways England’s new £192 million A556 link road between the M56 and M6 in Cheshire will now start on Thursday (May 28) and not Tuesday of next week.

Construction work on the new link road – which will bypass the existing route – began in November and is planned to open early in 2017.

In order to complete excavations south of Bowdon Roundabout at junction 7 of the M56 and install narrow lanes along the existing route in the same area, about 10 nights of overnight closures will be taking place from Thursday.

The overnight closures were originally planned to start on Tuesday (May 26) but were rescheduled before the threat of a rail strike next week was lifted. The rescheduled timetable will now remain.

The work will mean the closure of the A556 in both directions between Bowdon Roundabout and Bucklow Hill between 9pm and 5am each week night (Monday to Friday) until Tuesday, June 9 – a further change in the originally-published schedule.

There will be no overnight closures on Saturday or Sunday nights over the period.

When the road is closed, there will be no access to or from the A556 for Millington Lane, Millington Hall Lane, Chapel Lane, Cherry Tree Lane and Rostherne Lane. Traffic from Mereside Road will only be able to access the A556 southbound towards Tabley.

Signed diversions will be in place for main routes using the M56, A50 and A56 with full details on the project webpage at www.highways.gov.uk/roads/road-projects/a556-knutsford-to-bowdon-improvement