DRIVERS face more misery when one of the main routes into Bolton is closed overnight throughout October.

The closure of St Peter's Way marks the first phase of a £7.3 million road improvement project.

The government has agreed to spend £5.8 million on resurfacing the road as part of its summer budget and Bolton Council is ploughing a further £1.5 million into the scheme.

The first stage of the work will begin in October and will see the road — which covers the A666 from the Kearsley Spur to Bolton town centre — closed overnight on weekdays from 8pm until 6am throughout October so that a detailed site investigation and survey can be carried out.

Motorists will have to to use other routes during these times, which will be signposted, and the road will be open at weekends and at peak times in the week.

Bolton Council’s cabinet member for highways, Cllr David Chadwick, apologised for the road closure but said it was an important project.

He said: “St Peter’s Way is a major route and a very important link road to neighbouring towns. The resurfacing is going to be a huge piece of work and to plan how we do it we need to survey the road. Unfortunately this will mean overnight closures, which are not ideal and I’d like to apologise in advance for any inconvenience. We would also like to thank motorists, residents and businesses for their patience and co-operation.”

Chancellor George Osborne awarded the cash for the scheme from a £17.8 million funding pot for local transport projects — and Bolton’s was the single biggest award of the various projects.

The funding was awarded after Bolton Council submitted a bid to the government and authority chiefs said they were “pleasantly surprised” to be handed the money.

As well as a complete resurfacing of the busy route — the money will be used for maintenance work on the various bridges along the road.

The resurfacing work will start next year and will mean further disruption for motorists.

It has been decided that any any work on St Peter’s Way will not take place until next year because of Network Rail’s ongoing work at the Farnworth Tunnels site. The decision has proved to be a good one — in light of the recent announcement that the tunnels project has been delayed and could take up until December to be completed.

Motorists are still being asked to adhere to a 40 mile per hour speed limit on the stretch of St Peter’s Way leading up to the site.

Cllr Chadwick added: “We will have to think very carefully about how we plan the work out because we want to cause as little inconvenience to motorists as possible. However, when carrying out work on a road of this importance, there is bound to be some disruption.

For more information on the upcoming works, residents can contact the council on 01204 336677 or e-mail highways@bolton.gov.uk.