TWO weeks of overnight roadworks will close a four-mile stretch of one of Bolton's busiest roads while average speed cameras are installed.

The cameras will be installed along St Peter's Way/A666 from Topp Way near the town centre all the way to the Kearsley Spur where it joins with the M61.

The stretch of St Peter's Way will close from Monday, June 25 to Friday, July 7 between 10pm and 5am on weekdays.

Bolton Council cabinet member for transport and highways, Cllr David Chadwick, said the cameras were necessary to make sure drivers abide by the 50mph speed limit on St Peter's Way and will replace the existing speed cameras.

Cllr Chadwick said: "A few years ago we had a number of accidents on there where people were driving at excessive speeds so the cameras were introduced to slow them down and that's been quite successful, but we're finding people slow down then speed up.

"These cameras will do an average of the speed so between one and another if it's say half a mile you have to maintain a speed that keeps you below the limit.

"They're very similar to the ones you will find on motorways."

The decision to install cameras along St Peter's Way was agreed in June last year and Bolton Council accepted contractor JENOPTIK's bid to do the work for around £245,000.

Additional installation costs are not expected to take the project above the £300,000 of funding which has been provided for the project by Transport for Greater Manchester as part of the Greater Manchester Casualty Reduction Partnership.

Cllr Chadwick said: "I don't think there were any adverse comments at the time. Along there the average speed cameras will have a better effect on road safety. There still are quite a few accidents on there but they haven't been too serious."

According the Bolton Council's roadworks report the works are expected to cause a major disruption to motorists but Cllr Chadwick felt the reduction in traffic at that time of night meant most drivers would not be inconvenienced.

He said: "In the past it's not been too bad and we can't expect the company that's installing the cameras to work without have to remove traffic.

"There might be the odd grumble but nothing too serious."

He said he did not expect there to be too much disruption because "the traffic flow in the evening is a lot less than during the day".

The system will consist of a series of cameras at strategic points on the road, which can calculate whether a driver has committed a speeding offence based on the time taken to travel between cameras.

The number of cameras to be installed is expected to be revealed today. A similar project along an eight-mile stretch of Belmont Road involved the installation of 10 cameras.