CHESHIRE West and Chester Council is speeding up surfacing schemes at a number of locations in the Chester, Upton, Tilston and Malpas areas in the coming weeks.

These road care schemes have been made possible as a result of the extra £3m made available by the council to target some of the roads that have deteriorated the most during the last few months following two harsh winters.

All the locations will require road closures for the duration of the works and will be advertised on site to warn residents and commuters.

All the works will be carried out by the council’s term contractor BAM Nuttall Limited and, weather permitting, will be carried out on the following dates:

Rake Lane, Eccleston - Road closed until February 25 for nearly 1km of surfacing work between Wrexham Road and The Rake. All traffic diverted via A483 Wrexham Road, Overleigh Road and Eaton Road.

Caughall Road, Upton – Road closed to northbound traffic from February 21 for footway reconstruction and repairs and closed to all traffic in March for road surfacing work between A41 Long Lane and Acres Lane. Traffic to use the same diversion routes as in place during the ongoing NWGA and DVW works.

A56 Hoole Road, Chester – Road closed from 7pm on Friday, February 25 to 8pm on Sunday, February 27 for road surfacing work between Knowsley Road and Park Drive. All city centre traffic to be diverted via the A51 Vicars Cross Road.

Lower Bridge Street, Chester – Road closed on February 27 and March 1 to carry out surfacing work between Pepper Street and Castle Drive.

A5104 Hough Green, Chester – Road closed from March 4-6 for surfacing work between Cliveden Road and Howe Road and a further date to be confirmed.

Stretton Hall Lane, Stretton – Road closed to all traffic on March 8-9 for surfacing work between Little Tilston Bridge and Grafton Farm.

B5069 Chester Road, Malpas – Road closed March 26-27 for surfacing work between Hampton roundabout at the A41 and Post Office Lane.

Wet Lane, Tilston – Road closed to all traffic on March 26-28 for surfacing work and footway repair work between Grange Lane and Ford Lane.

New Crane Street, Chester – Road surfaced during March from Wells Avenue to Dee Lock.

Councillor Lynn Riley, Executive Member for Community and Environment, said: “Our recent public consultation on our priorities had highways at the top of the list for most people.

“The extra funding is in direct response to what people are telling us and aims to fix recent winter potholes and prevent new ones by surfacing part or all of the roads contained in the list of works.

“We do appreciate that such an extensive programme of works will cause some inconvenience to residents, businesses and commuters and we would like to thank everyone in advance for their patience and the end result will, I am sure, be worth it.”

Wherever possible, access will be maintained for residents and businesses along the stretch of road being closed, however along some of the rural roads this may not always be possible.

Residents and businesses affected in this way will be notified by letter to explain access arrangements. Diversion routes will be signed on site.