DRIVERS face seven weeks of congestion at one of Basildon’s busiest roundabouts as part of roadworks to improve traffic flow.

Work on the roundabout between Uppermayne and Cranes Farm Road, by Pipps Hill Retail Park, will start on January 9 and last seven weeks.

The project will cost £330,000 and involve creating a filter lane, so vehicles can turn left from Cranes Farm Road into Upper- mayne without having to stop at the roundabout.

Essex County Council engineers will also add an extra traffic lane to Uppermayne, where it approaches either side of the roundabout.

Taxi driver Ralph Morgan, 68, of Sandon Road, Basildon, said: “The roadworks will cause absolute chaos in the short term, but it’s a good idea because you get such a lot of traffic coming towards that roundabout from the retail estate, where they have the big B&Q store, and also the A127.

“It always results in terrible traffic jams.

“Once the work is all finished, it will hopefully cut traffic congestion a lot, which has to be a good thing.”

The work in January will form the second phase of improvements to the roundabout.

Phase one, which was carried out a year ago, involved extending the pedestrian underpass at the junction between Cranes Farm Road and Upper Mayne.

A spokesman from Essex County Council said: “The roads will still be open, but there might be lane closures to accommodate for the work.

“The improvements are being made to help ease congestion in the area.”

Extensive roadworks at the other end of Cranes Farm Road, approaching East Mayne, were completed in May.

This created a dual carriageway between East Mayne and the roundabout at Cranes Court, a dedicated left-turn lane on to the roundabout, new traffic lights and a pedestrian crossing.