A £500,000 road improvement scheme in Swindon will begin today.

Upham Road will undergo a transformation with the works being spilt into two main phases, with a third budget- dependent phase.

The first phase will start at Immanuel URC Church up to Brixham Avenue; there will be full road closure with no access at any time.

Work is anticipated to last five weeks.

The second stage of the roadworks will be from Drove Road to Immanuel URC Church; again there will be full road closure with no access at any time.

The work on this will begin immediately after Phase 1 is complete and should last five weeks.

The final phase will be from Brixham Avenue to Queens Drive, but this will depend on whether the budget will be able to cover the work. If it does go ahead there will be lane closures with access available.

The disruption of the road not being open to traffic will mean that the number 17 bus will not run through Upham Road but will instead be diverted via Queens Drive, Drove Road and Groundwell Road.

The council has organised a replacement service through Akcess, which will pick up Upham Road residents and those living in the adjoining streets from the existing bus stop on Drove Road, close to the entrance of Queen’s Park, between Monday and Saturday at 9.30am, 11.30am, 1.30pm and 3.30pm.