A crumbling stretch of road in Moray’s biggest town will be resurfaced next week during a £200,000 project.
Bear Scotland crews will begin the works on the A96 Aberdeen to Inverness road in Elgin tomorrow in a bid to fix a series of pot holes on the busy route.
Concerned drivers have already raised complaints about a gouge which has grown progressively wider at the Tesco roundabout in the north east community.
Highlands and Islands MSP – and newly-elected MP – Douglas Ross described the scar as a “rut” when the problems were raised with Transport Scotland.
A series of overnight closures have now been scheduled to repair the route that is used by almost 22,000 vehicles every day.
Sections of Alexandra Road, Cumming Street and several approaches and exits at the roundabouts at the supermarket and Dr Gray’s Hospital will be smoothed over during six nights of work.
Bear Scotland’s north-east representative, Andy Thompson, stressed the remedial works had been scheduled to minimise disruption.
He said: “The investment from Transport Scotland will allow us to address the defects in this section of the A96 to create a smooth, improved road surface for road users.
“We’ve taken steps to reduce the overall impact of this scheme by carrying out the works overnight and our teams will look to do all they can to complete the works as quickly and safely as possible.
“We encourage road users to plan their journeys in advance by checking the Traffic Scotland website for up to date information, following the diversion signage and leaving extra time to complete their journey.”
The closures will begin tomorrow and extend for six nights between 7.30pm and 6.30am.
Temporary traffic lights will be installed at the roundabout at Dr Gray’s Hospital before the junction is closed entirely on Monday and Tuesday night.
Engineers will then move to the roundabout at Halfords on Wednesday before the junction at Tesco is closed on Thursday and Friday.
Access will be maintained to the supermarket through the roadworks, except between 1am and 5am on Saturday.