AKERS Way is finally set to reopen, bringing an end to months of misery for road users and residents in North Swindon.

The barriers will be removed on Wednesday, but only after all the evening peak-time traffic has been and gone.

The £900,000 project was designed to fix the road’s deteriorating surface and improve parking.

Work was originally due to finish at the end of September but delays meant a further four weeks was required.

It was initially hoped that a resurfacing job was all that was needed to address problems with the road’s deteriorating concrete base.

But on closer inspection, contractors found the sub-base was in serious need of strengthening in order to avoid further potholes popping up in future.

Over the course of the project, workmen have made 200 individual repairs to the concrete road base, ranging in size from 1m/sq to 580m/sq.

Some 390 cubic metres of concrete has been poured into the road structure in a bid to stave off future issues.

Almost 4km of new kerbing has been laid.

The project has taken around 10,500 hours to complete, but a frequent complaint from passing motorists has been the lack of activity at the site during that time.

Pictures posted to social media have shown long stretches of the closed road standing empty without a workman in site.

News that the work is almost complete will come as welcome relief for people living in Purton Road, Moredon Road, Cheney Manor Road and Akers Way.

Those routes have been significantly busier than normal for the past six months due to traffic diversions around the Akers Way site.

Councillor Mary Martin, Swindon Borough Council abinet ember for communities and lace, said: “This project has transformed what was arguably one of the worst road surfaces in Swindon into one of the best.

“The Council is committed to improving the borough’s highways network and the investment in Akers Way is the latest in a series of schemes to upgrade key parts of our infrastructure in line with the town’s continued growth and the increasing number of vehicles on our roads.

“To say this scheme was complex and challenging would be an understatement and I’d like to thank road users for their patience whilst these critical works have been carried out. I know that residents, road users and cyclists will reap the benefits of this work for many years to come.”