Almost two years of roadworks on a busy Black Country junction will begin on Monday – with 20 mph speed limits set to be imposed.

One lane of Tividale Road will be shut as part of the £12.3 million redevelopment of the Burnt Tree Island on the Tipton and Dudley border. Around 20 roads are to be affected with either lane closures or speed restrictions. Cars will be stopped from going west along Dudley Road West and one lane of Tividale Road as well as some parts of Hill Road and New Birmingham Road.

Vehicles will be diverted down Hill Road and New Birmingham Road for at least 18 months.

There will also be 20mph speed limits down Tividale Road from its junction with New Birmingham Road to where it meets Tividale Street.

Lorries and vans weighing more than 7.5 tons will be barred from going into Coneygre Street, Fisher Street, Tividale Street, Whitehouse Street, Crown Walk, Holcroft Street, Danks Street, Bradley Street, Barnett Street, Watford Street and Oakthorpe Gardens.

Preliminary work has started in Tividale Road with holes being dug to prepare the ground for the excavations. Four portable offices have already been set up.

Traders along the A4033 Tividale Road were originally outraged after it was announced the road in Tipton would be closed while the revamp of the blackspot Burnt Tree island goes ahead.

However, highways bosses at Dudley Council confirmed earlier this month that they would allow one-way access from Burnt Tree while the work is carried out.

Traders’ spokesman Gaz Khan, aged 29, of Lifestyle Express newsagents, in Tividale Road, said: “We are now just waiting for the work to begin.

“It is a nervous time because we won’t know the full impact it is going to have on our trade until the work actually starts but it has been a huge relief to get the one side of the street to stay open.

“We will obviously lose trade because people will avoid the area but at least we will not be completely cut off from customers who are passing by.”