Eight weeks of major traffic delays are feared tomorrow morning at the start of a project to build a “bus gate” as part of improvements to the city’s public transport network.
Contractors Pat Munro of Alness will begin work on Millburn Road to construct a new junction that should ease the bus route between the city centre and the evolving university campus on the southern outskirts of Inverness.
The roadworks will mean the closure of one lane of each carriageway on Millburn Road near the KFC takeaway.
Temporary traffic lights will be installed close to the current pedestrian crossing point.
Restrictions will also be in place on the other three approaches to the Millburn roundabout.
The work was to have been done last month but was delayed because of the fire on Academy Street in order to minimise disruption to traffic.
At present, eastbound buses and other traffic wanting to access Raigmore Estate need to travel via the Raigmore interchange.
The new junction will allow buses only to access King Duncan’s Road and avoid the Raigmore interchange altogether.
They can then continue through the Raigmore estate and drop passengers near the pedestrian bridge to the campus.
The “bus gate” will include controlled traffic signals and a pedestrian crossing.
It needs to be operational before 12 acres of the campus is built.