COUNCIL highways chiefs have planned measures to attempt to limit the impact caused by three weeks of traffic light replacement work at a busy Bournemouth junction.

Work begins on Monday to replace the signals at Castle Lane East and Riverside Avenue.

Contractors for BCP Council highways will remove the old signals, poles and cabling before installing the new equipment. The new traffic signals are expected to be up and running by August 23.

The local authority says the replacement is urgent, with the current signals being more than 23 years old.

During the work, the road will remain open at all times with the junction controlled manually by temporary traffic lights.

Traffic management operatives will be on site monitoring the situation each day between 7am and 7pm, and where possible, adjustments will be made to assist traffic flows.

Gary Powell, BCP Council head of traffic management, said: “The work our contractors are carrying out will involve some continuing disruption, but the work is necessary due to the urgent need to update the old signals.

“This is very complicated work involving nearly 1km of cables, and detailed wiring to ensure the safe operation of the new signals.

“Given this is an extremely busy junction we are putting in place temporary lights which will be controlled manually meaning crews can alter the phasing and instantly respond to any build-up of a traffic. This will help us to keep disruption to a minimum. We’d ask all road users in this area to bear with us while we carry out these essential works.”

The works to replace the old traffic signals will cost £130,000 and are being funded via Department for Transport maintenance funding.