A PUBLICITY drive is kicking off so people can find out more about the latest stage of a £33 million overhaul of Worcester's A4440 Southern Link Road.

Worcestershire County Council, which approved another phase of the dualling in September, is staging three public exhibitions this month to drum up interest in it.

The latest work, known as phase three, aims to build on the £8 million enlargement at the Ketch roundabout which is finishing next April.

The council says it wants to kick on with the next stage of the revamp during next summer, which includes:

- Dual-tracking the length of the Southern Link Road between the Whittington island junction and the new-look Ketch roundabout

- Improvements to the Norton roundabout, making it slightly bigger to allow more cars to straddle it

- A new dedicated left-hand turn from Whittington Road, by junction seven of the M5, towards Crookbarrow Way

- A new bridleway bridge over Crookbarrow Way, which secured planning approval last week

- Widening of the railway bridge owned by Network Rail

Council staff will be on hand to answer questions at St Peter's Garden Centre in Norton Road this Monday, November 17 from 10am-1pm and 4pm-7pm.

They will also be at Tesco in St Peter's on Friday, November 21 from 4pm-7pm.

A new section of the council's website to publicise it is launching on Thursday, at worcestershire.gov.uk/slrphase3.

Councillor Simon Geraghty, deputy leader and cabinet member for economy, skills and infrastructure, said: "The importance of this next phase of works on the Southern Link Road cannot be stressed enough.

"It's the largest project at its type for decades and demonstrates our commitment to building a 'world class' Worcestershire that is very much open for business."

The project is so vast, it will not finish until some time in 2018.

It does not include any changes to the bottle-necked A440 Carrington Bridge, although the council is currently exploring the estimated costs and implications of dualling that at some point.

The likely cost of dualling the Carrington Bridge has been estimated at anywhere from £30 million-£40 million, although it could be more.

The Carrington Bridge was created in October 1984, and congestion on the entire Southern Link Road has been an issue for over 20 years.

Around 30,000 vehicles now use the route daily, on average and the council insists the work planned already will help relieve some of the jams and speed up travel times significantly.