HIGHWAYS bosses have announced an increased road closure time as part of an ongoing multimillion-pound repair scheme on a major north Essex road.

Work on the A120 between Crown Interchange and Little Bentley roundabout is already underway.

The scheme is located just east of Colchester and is approximately 9km in length.

The £7.2 million project is seeing National Highways undergo carrying out specialist repairs and maintenance in both directions.

Bosses say repairs will help improve the safety of the road surface and ensure a smoother and safer ride on the A120, while also extending the life of the road surface by up to five years.

Six months of overnight closures are already in place, with the eastbound carriageway closed from 8pm to 6am during weekdays.

However, Essex Highways has revealed in an update that this will now increase from 8pm to 7am on Fridays.

A statement reads: “To continue our efforts, and maximise efficiency, we will need to increase each Friday night closure by one hour meaning these closures will now come off at 7am each Saturday morning, rather than 6am.

“This is due to the overflow of traffic from the A12 on Friday evenings, preventing us from closing the road fully by 8pm.

“Since starting work, we’ve noticed that traffic volumes have been higher than expected on Friday evenings, making it difficult for us to start work at 8pm as planned.

“We need to make this time up to ensure we are still on programme and not incurring any delays.

“Traffic counts are still low between 6am and 7am on Saturday mornings and therefore we expect minimal disruption, however we apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.”

So far, 23 out of 100 concrete slabs have been replaced, with a total of 300 linear metres worth of repairs made out of 1660 linear metres.

Amended road closure timings mean overnight closures are now from 8pm to 6am from Monday to Thursday and 8pm to 7am on Fridays.

The new change will come into effect from Friday, November 29, and run until the planned end date of the eastbound closure in January 2025.

The overnight closures on the westbound side will then be from January 2025 until March 2025.

For more information, visit nationalhighways.co.uk.