Drivers to face enormous 35-mile diversion ahead of Bank Holiday Weekend as potholes cause road closure
DRIVERS are set to be faced with a huge 35-mile diversion route on a major road ahead of Bank Holiday weekend.
Pesky potholes have forced the closure and weekend plans could now be thrown up in the air for thousands of motorists.
The A14 in Suffolk will close for emergency works meaning motorists will need to take a different route.
Newton Road in Stowmarket will be closed between 7pm on Friday and 5am on Saturday.
A 35-mile diversion will be in place along the B1113, A140 and A143.
A spokesperson for Suffolk Highways said the road has been closed for urgent carriageway maintenance such as filling in potholes.
It comes as two major motorways are set to see closures this Bank Holiday weekend sparking travel chaos for millions of Britons.
Carriageways, slip-roads and link roads on the M25, both in clockwise and anti-clockwise directions, will be affected by the planned works in the coming days.
And closures are also set to hit the M20 this weekend, causing worry for anyone planning to make a cross-country trip during the three-day break.
The RAC is warning that more than 16million drivers are set to hit the roads for the May Bank Holiday Weekend, with getaway traffic building from today before peaking tomorrow at 3.3million journeys.
Another 2.3million getaway trips are planned for Sunday, May 5, with 2.6million planned for Monday, 6 May, according to analysis by RAC and INRIX.
And 5.6million trips are expected to be made at some point over the weekend by drivers who are yet to decide which day to travel, the organisations say.
Amid the great national getaway, National Highways warns of M20 maintenance works for the moveable barrier in place along the motorway between Jct 9 for Ashford and Jct 8 for Maidstone and Leeds Castle.
How much money the UK spends on potholes
POTHOLES are costing the economy an estimated £14billion, a report says.
Douglas McWilliams, the report author, said: “Potholes waste drivers’ time, put cyclists’ lives at risk and damage the environment.
“The government can afford to act. Why doesn’t it?”
Chris Whitwood, standing as Phil Potholes in a Rotherham local election this week, insists people are simply “fed up” with the state of the roads.
He said: “Potholes harm the British economy and it shouldn’t take a genius to realise there is a connection between investing in infrastructure and economic growth.”
A government source said: “We’re investing in the biggest ever funding increase for local road improvements, made possible by £8.3billion of reallocated HS2 funding.
“To make sure councils do a good job, we’re making them publish their completed and planned works.”
The Government previously said that £38million would be spent on improving England’s deadliest roads.
And another report said UK roads are reaching “breaking point” and that Councils expect to fill in two million potholes this year, up 43 per cent.
The Asphalt Industry Alliance says the figure is the worst since 2015 when 2.2 million tarmac craters were patched up.
The AIA says filling in more potholes means councils are not able to fix roads properly before they start to crumble.
But it adds that authorities do not have funds for repairs.
Its annual Alarm survey found that despite a 2.3 per cent rise in highway maintenance budgets, inflation means it is a cut in real terms.
It said 47 per cent of local road miles were in a good condition, 36 per cent were adequate and 17 per cent were rated poor.
Meanwhile, the repairs backlog reached a record £16.3billion, up from £14billion a year ago.