WORK to widen a busy Colchester road in a bid to cut traffic will begin this month.

Essex County Council hopes to relieve the bottleneck at the A133 Colne Bank Avenue by creating two lanes in each direction between the Colne Bank and Albert roundabouts.

At the moment, the road has three lanes – two towards Cowdray Avenue and one towards the Colne roundabout.

The improvements will mean there will be four, with two towards the Colne roundabout.

The work is part of a multimillion pound investment to improve transport in Colchester.

Rodney Bass, councillor responsible for highways at County Hall, said: “The project is an important component of the large investment planned to fuel Colchester’s development aims.

“The work over the next few years will drive the town’s economic growth, widen access to employment and ease congestion; all leading to improved competitiveness and sustainability, not only in the borough, but beyond.”

Surveys and preliminary work on the A133 will begin this month and finish in October.

This work will not affect traffic or pedestrians.

Construction will begin in November and is due to be finished in March.

In a bid to keep disruption to a minimum, the road will not be fully closed and lane closures will be used instead.

Resident parking bays on both sides of the road are due to stay and a surveywill be done to check the impact on trees.

The work will tie in with the introduction of left turn slip lanes at Colne Bank roundabout and the proposed widening of Cowdray Avenue and Westway.

While the A133 work is being completed, construction teams will also strengthen Temple Bridge and subway and rewaterproof the bridge deck.

An enhanced, shared footpath and cycle path to the southern side of Colne Bank Avenue will also be created.