LESS THAN 100 days after the opening of a £43m bypass a council has announced that it will be temporarily closed for maintenance work. Herts County Council has given notice that it intends to close over 4km of the new Baldock bypass to enable routine tunn

LESS THAN 100 days after the opening of a £43m bypass a council has announced that it will be temporarily closed for maintenance work.

Herts County Council has given notice that it intends to close over 4km of the new Baldock bypass to enable routine tunnel maintenance works to take place overnight.

Safety checks, lighting maintenance and signal checks will all be carried out as part of the work.

The council said the work needs to be done every three months on tunnels and the Weston Hills tunnels are no exception, although it has yet to issue specific days for the tunnels closure.

Because the bypass will be closed between 10pm and 6am for two nights during the week, drivers will once again be forced to take an alternative route along London Road, High Street and Whitehorse Street in Baldock town centre.

This includes a number of heavy goods vehicles which use the bypass during the night and residents in the town will have to put with the extra traffic.

The news will annoy some members of the public who were told that the new bypass will herald a new era for the town and its residents.

A spokesman for the council said: "We're doing it at night to minimise traffic problems and we're hoping that it won't cause too many problems. We haven't confirmed the dates yet. It will be sooner rather than later."

For anybody wanting to know more information on the maintenance work or the temporary road closure, they can contact Malcolm Watts, the project engineer, on 01707 356314.