Resurfacing needed on newly upgraded Holdingham Roundabout

County highways officials have decided that additional surfacing work is required on the junction of the A15 and A17 outside Sleaford, after a 10-month project to install new lanes and lights was finished in December.

It formed part of an £8.25m scheme to improve capacity to cope with growing demand at the over-worked junction and also involved upgrading safety at the A153/A17 rugby club junction.

The road surfacing works will start on July 4 for two evenings, carried out under night-time road closures.

Karen Cassar, Assistant Director – Highways, said: "Since opening the upgraded roundabout last December, we've noticed that some of the top-layer surfacing doesn’t meet the stringent quality requirements we specified in our designs.

"Quality issues like these sometimes come up after laying final road surfacing in the cold, winter months, so we knew there was some risk when we re-opened the roundabout last December.

"As a result, the scheme’s contractor will be removing and re-laying this top layer of tarmac as part of our contract with them.”

The contractor, Eurovia, will do the work under its guarantee of service, at no further cost to the council.

On Monday July 4, the A17 Newark junction (both directions) will close from 6pm to 5.30am, with a diversion via A15 south towards Bourne / A153 / A607, and vice versa.

The same night the A15 Lincoln junction (northbound only) will close for surfacing from 10pm to 12.30am (2.5hrs).

On Tuesday July 5 the A15 Lincoln junction (northbound only) will close from 7pm to 5.30am, with a diversion via the A17 / A607 / B1202.

Temporary traffic lanes and part-closures to be used as required.

Karen Cassar added: “These works will inevitably cause some inconvenience, so I want to thank everyone in advance for bearing with us.”

*In light of growing concerns by motorists about the potholed state of the A17 from Sleaford to Newark, the county council will be rebuilding the section of A17 at Byards Leap this summer. Following that, reconstruction of the section of A17 between Beckingham dual carriageway and the Brant Broughton crossroads is tentatively scheduled to begin in the autumn, according to a county highways spokesman.