Misery as work starts on M54 junction lights

Drivers will face four months of misery and delays as traffic lights are to be installed on a motorway roundabout on the Staffordshire and Wolverhampton border.

The £2.6 million scheme by the Highways Agency is due to start on February 15 and will take until June, it emerged today.

Haulage companies and commuters have expressed dismay that the junction, which flows freely outside rush-hour, will become a bottleneck on the main route north.

The slip roads leading to and from the A449 Stafford Road are expected to be reduced to one lane during the work.

The scheme was first dreamed up as part of an £11m project to rip out the busy Vine Island at Fordhouses and replace it with traffic lights in preparation for the i54 business park on Wobaston Road, which is hoped to create 6,000 jobs.

That work has to be done by 2012 in order to comply with planning conditions imposed by South Staffordshire Council.

Highways Agency regional director Tim Harbot said: "There are 10 people injured in accidents using the junction every year. We have a definite safety case for this work."

The work will involve lane closures but the agency has not ruled out closing slip roads if it needs to protect workers.