TRAFFIC chaos will once more descend on the A590 when a major junction is closed for two weeks.

The £4.5m scheme to create a new junction with four-way traffic lights at Quebec Street and Swan Street in Ulverston started in November.

Set to take four months in total, the work will create a signalled junction, widen the A590 to make room for two lanes at the junction, and widen the Quebec Street approach to two lanes.

The project is being carried out in three stages and from Monday, the junctions where the A590 meets Quebec Street, leading to the A5087 coast road, and Swan Street, will be closed for two weeks.

On Monday, the first day of the works, temporary traffic lights will also be in place at the junction.

With many motorists using Quebec Street to travel to and from Barrow, the diversions are expected to cause delays.

The Evening Mail understands internal communications about the Quebec Street closure are being distributed to all shipyard employees at BAE Systems in Barrow.

Those travelling westbound and eastbound who want to access Quebec Street will need to follow a diversion using The Ellers. The diversion for the closure of the Swan Street junction will use a route via Union Street or Brewery Street and Hart Street.

Cumbria County Council is delivering the junction improvements on behalf of Cumbria Local Enterprise Partnership, which secured £4.5m from the government's Local Growth Fund.

The scheme aims to create 540 new jobs by unlocking employment land and housing sites which have been allocated in the South Lakeland Plan.

Graham Haywood, director of the Cumbria LEP, said: "Investment in improving transport infrastructure and connectivity of key routes to and from the M6 is a key part of our economic strategy to accelerate growth and create employment.

"We need effective transport and connectivity to help existing businesses like GSK operate more effectively and to attract new investment in the county. Road improvements such as this all contribute to those aims."