The huge walls of scaffolding being built alongside the southern ring road are part of moving an electricity pylon.

Sources at Worcester County Council confirmed this week that the works on land just west of the Carrington Bridge were 'preparatory work' for creation of a new bridge and turning the stretch of road between the Ketch and Powick roundabouts into a dual carriageway.

Now the council has confirmed just how preparatory.

Before anything else can be done the electricity pylon which stands prominently next to the road has to be moved.

The scaffolding is being constructed on either side of the carriageway for safety netting to be put up because when the pylon is removed a temporary pylon will be put up to carry the cables while a permanent pylon is erected in a new position. The netting will protect cars from the cables overhead.

The work is being carried out by Western Power Distribution on behalf of the county council

Councillor Ken Pollock, County Hall's cabinet member with responsibility for economy and infrastructure said: "It's great to see work starting on the next phase of the Southern Link Road Scheme.

"This temporary scaffold structure will look impressive during the short time it's up and is a key part of the works needed before we can start the main construction next spring. Once fully dualled, journey times should be improved and city centre congestion relieved."

The scaffolding and net barrier will remain in place until the autumn of 2018 when the project should be completed.

After the power pylon is moved, work will start in earnest on dualling the road and constructing another bridge across the Severn will begin in earnest next Spring.

The constriction of traffic from two lanes to one often causes significant hold-ups at the Ketch roundabout which can stretch

A week ago, the project to extends the railway bridge carrying trains over the ring road between Whittington and Norton Roundabout was completed 36 hours early.

That work is also part of a plan to increase the capacity of the ringroad. It will allow two lanes of traffic to head north under the existing bridge, and, eventually, a new dual carriageway carrying traffic southbound will be constructed under the new section of bridge.