The contractor has been named to carry out work on the notorious Pitchcombe junction near Stroud - which comes with a traffic warning for motorists from next week.

A number of accidents and near misses have taken place at the A4173/A46 junction, which sees the Stroud to Painswick Road split as it approaches the junction with the Gloucester to Stroud road.

News that the county council's highways department would finally take on the task was announced back in January.

Gloucestershire County Council's highways team has hired Hampshire-based Knights Brown to change the junction to a "give way T-junction" with right turn lane on the A46.

It will also add "better street lighting and signs" and install "toad pods" to assist the local amphibian population during the toad migration season.

Crews from Knights Brown will be onsite from Monday (October 7), and work is estimated to finish in early Spring 2020.

There will be three-way traffic lights in place 24/7 throughout the whole scheme duration for the safety of road users and the workforce.

According to the county council the work is part of the wider A4173 safety improvements package which the county council has been working on for around 18 months.

Residents and businesses can find out more and meet the contractor on Monday (October 7) from 2pm - 6pm at Pitchcombe Village Hall.

Highways officers from the county council will also be on hand to answer any questions or queries about the work.

The county council successfully bid for £2.16 million from the Department for Transport (DfT) Safer Roads Fund to improve safety and road conditions for the A4173 near Stroud, after it was identified that safety improvements were needed as a priority.

Currently the council uses different providers to deliver three main aspects of the county's road works; general maintenance (Ringway), structural maintenance (Tarmac) and highways professional services/major projects (Atkins).

Skanska delivers the street lighting service and Telent providing the traffic signal service around the county.

Read more: Roadworks pending for notorious junction