Highways England – the nation's new road transport management organisation – has announced motorists in the vicinity of Elkesley in Nottinghamshire should be prepared for possible delays when carrying out journeys via the A1 this weekend and next.

A series of overnight closures have been earmarked for the southbound A1 from Apleyhead to the northbound slip road at Twyford Bridge over the coming days, beginning on Thursday (April 9th).

The carriageway will be closed to all traffic between the hours of 20:00 BST and 06:00 the following morning, with engineers working again at the site the following night.

Maintenance will then be put on hold for the working week, before getting underway once more at 20:00 on April 17th. The carriageway will then remaining closed to all users until 06:00 on April 20th. This will be a full weekend closure that affects all traffic.

These closures are an unfortunate but necessary by-product of the essential work being completed as part of this scheme, which includes major construction and surfacing work to realign the carriageway and to lift the road to a new height.

Highways England project manager Graham Littlechild stated: "There will inevitably be delays at peak times on Saturday and Sunday and our contractor will be working hard to complete as much work as possible during the first weekend.

"The new road will need to be raised by up to 800 mm in some places and the closures are necessary for the work to be undertaken safely and in the least possible time."

He added that the project is being completed over two weekends rather than via successive overnight closures to reduce the impact on local travellers and keep potential disruption in the area to a minimum.