SIGNS have been put in place on a major city road, warning motorists of 18 weeks of disruption to allow for works to prevent future flooding.

A44 New Road, a key route linking the city centre with St John's, and providing access to Worcestershire County Cricket Club’s ground, will be raised by 15 inches for nearly 200 metres to prevent flooding.

The work for the new measure, agreed by County Hall’s Planning and Regulatory Committee earlier this month, will begin on January 8.

The closure applies to the stretch of the three-lane one-way road running from just outside the Premier Inn hotel immediately west of Worcester Bridge, to 20 metres west of the cricket ground.

A box culvert will be constructed under the road surface to carry away flood water, with the work timed to avoid the cricket season, according to the planning application.

During the four-and-a-half-month period, at least one lane of the road will be open, and access will be maintained to the cricket ground, Cripplegate Park and the King’s School Worcester’s playing fields.

Though further intermittent closures may be required.

The county’s highways department says the work is necessary because New Road is “a key arterial route through Worcester” and has a “history of flooding”.

The council has said the traffic-based economic benefits of the scheme will amount to £7.5m, while the wider economic benefits would amount to more than £2.89m.

However, Worcester-based committee members Cllr Pat Agar and Paul Denham voted against the plan, with the latter claiming he was “not convinced by the economic arguments”.

He said he was also concerned by the necessity to chop down seven mature trees along the road to allow the work to happen.