MOTORISTS have been warned to expect delays when a busy main road is partially closed for resurfacing.

Swindon Council has announced that Kingshill Road will be closed one way - on the side leading up Kingshill to Old Town - between Wootton Bassett Road and Clifton Street from August 6 until September 3.

The council says it is for essential work to the road and the pavements.

The footways will be sealed with a thin resurfacing substance.

Diversions will be put in place for drivers.

The alternative route will involve Westcott Place, Faringdon Road, Emlyn Square, Station Road, Wellington Street, Milford Street, Princes Street, Victoria Road and Bath Road.

Paul Jenkins, the managing director of Thamesdown Transport, said that diversions would be put in place on two routes.

"It impacts on the number 22 from Taw Hill to Swindon and the 25 from Windmill Hill to Swindon bus station," he said.

"The outward journeys are not affected but the inward journeys will be diverted along Westcott Place, Faringdon Road, Farnsby Street and Commercial Road.

"Any passengers for Old Town will have to change and get a 10 or an 11 up Victoria Road.

"However, because it's during school holiday time we are hoping that this won't add too much time on to journeys because there is that much less traffic on the roads."

The roadworks follow a year of traffic difficulties in and around Old Town.

In July last year a sewer collapsed in Wood Street.

Thames Water had to carry out massive rebuilding works and the road was closed from July until a month before Christmas, and then for several weeks at the beginning of this year.

The Victorian sewer's collapse meant that others in the area needed to be checked, and then restorative work had to be carried out at the junction of Devizes Road, Bath Road and Wood Street to make sure the same thing did not happen again.

Newport Street also saw a 10-week resurfacing scheme, which started in February this year.

The last time there were major roadworks in Kingshill Road was in February 2004, when a collapsed garden wall meant that temporary traffic lights had to be installed at the top of the hill. The work turned nearby roads, such as Clifton Street, into rat-runs.