The ‘no pain, no gain’ next stage of the £32m King’s Dyke level crossing project will involve road closures in the New Year.

Cambridgeshire County Council says the Whittlesey project “is poised to enter a vital phase with work on the road connections to start imminently”.

Contractor Jones Bros is to begin on the western roundabout, before switching to the eastern roundabout in late spring.

As a result, temporary traffic management measures will be necessary.

From January 10, for the first three weeks, three-way traffic lights will be used on the Funtham’s Lane Junction at the western end.

These will be operating from Monday morning, 9.30am all the way through the week until 3.30pm on Friday, for work on the westbound carriageway

After this period, the county council will switch to using two-way traffic lights on the western roundabout, restricted to the hours between 9.30am and 3.30pm each weekday

The bus stop located at the junction with Funtham’s Lane will be closed and a temporary bus stop will be available 50m to the west

A council spokesperson said: “We will then need to introduce 24-hour traffic lights for a further month while we progress the eastbound side of the carriageway

“Work on the western side is scheduled to finish in the first part of the spring, with attention shifting to the eastern side in early summer.

There will be a month-long gap between the western and eastern phases.”

The spokesperson said the work has been timed with other highway schemes to ensure there are no instances where more than one piece of work is happening on the road at the same time.

“However, emergency work may be required,” said the spokesperson. “If that is the case, we will react wherever possible.”

Rhydian Hafal, project manager for Jones Bros, said: “With highways projects like this, some disruption is inevitable.

“We are aiming to open the new bridge and divert the A605 in that direction as soon as possible, so we can carry out remaining tie-in works without traffic lights.

“We will be monitoring how the temporary traffic lights affect vehicle movement closely, in particular around the level crossing.

“We will look to guarantee there is no danger of a vehicle being caught on the crossing itself.”

The council says it has “contingencies in place” should North Bank Road floods.