DRIVERS have been told to expect disruption after a new round of motorway closures was announced as part of the M5 Junction 6 Improvement Plan.

From tomorrow (January 2), there will be night time lane closures as well as partial lane closures during the day. The closures are part of plans to reduce the number of lanes around the roundabout to two in order to allow additional space for carriageway widening work.

The lane closures are expected to cause disruption, especially during peak hours.

A spokesman for Highways England said: “We apologise for any disruption; please plan and allow extra time for your journey.

“We recognise that there is never a good time to carry out such significant improvement work at this busy location. We’ll work hard to complete this scheme as quickly as possible, keeping drivers on the move and disruption to a minimum."

Highways England has said it will need to put certain measures in place to complete the work safely. These include: Narrow Lanes in place on the roundabout and all approaches, a 50mph speed limit in place reducing down to 30mph, a barrier in place on the M5 and A4440 approaches, a free recovery service in place on both the Highways England and Worcestershire County Council road networks as well as lane closures during the off-peak hours in the day (9.30am to 3.30 pm) and the off-peak hours at night-time (8pm to 6am).

Today, tomorrow and Thursday, there will be narrow lanes with free recovery at all times, as well as lane closures at the M5 junction 6 Roundabout with the northbound entry slip road closed.

Tomorrow and Thursday there will be full closures of the A449 - which will be eastbound tomorrow and westbound on Thursday.

As part of the work, an extra lane will also be added to the roundabout with traffic signals on the A449 and the A4538 Pershore Lane south approaches.

The plan for the works is part of the government’s five-year Road Investment Strategy from 2015-2020.

This includes junction improvement work at junctions 5, 6 and 7 of the M5. Work to junctions 5 and 7 have been completed with work at junction 6 scheduled to be completed in 2019.