A MAJOR programme of work to improve an accident blackspot on one of North Yorkshire's busiest routes will finally start this summer.

The Highways Agency is spending £3.6m on a scheme to scrap a set of traffic lights on the A64 dual carriageway, near York - and close a dangerous gap in the central reservation at the same time.

But it has insisted that the project, which is due to start in July, will not further congest the road and cause traffic jams when the holiday season is at its height.

A clause has been inserted in the contract - which is out to tender - guaranteeing that both lanes of the dual carriageway will remain open during the peak period.

The traffic lights, by Copmanthorpe, have been blamed for many accidents over the years, usually involving traffic unable to stop in time when they change.

There have also been numerous accidents, including at least one death, involving vehicles trying to get through the gap being struck by oncoming traffic.

The improvement project, which will take some 14 months to complete, will involve the creation of an underpass to allow the gap to be closed and the lights to be removed.

The work had originally been due to start this month but a spokesman for the Highways Agency said there had been a slight "slippage" in the schedule.

However, the successful contractor is expected to be announced in June, with the preparatory work for the project itself getting under way the following month.

Originally, the cost of the long-awaited project was put at £2.2m but it was revised upwards because of the value of the land and the cost of moving services such as gas, electricity and telephones.

As well as an underpass, the work will see the construction of a link road giving local motorists safe access to the east-bound lane of the A64.

An exhibition will be mounted in the village in July explaining the full details to local people.