Road closures postponed for Grand Prix weekend

Overnight closures for work to be carried out on a busy roundabout have been postponed due to this coming weekend's British Grand Prix at Silvertone.

The work is due at the A45 Queen Eleanor Interchange in Northampton leading to the east side being closed along with slip roads and the Hardingstone Lane and Newport Pagnell approaches.

Now, road closures will be in place from 20:00 BST to 06:00 on Friday ,11 July and Saturday, 12 July.

Richard Butler, cabinet member for highways at West Northamptonshire Council, said: "We want to ensure that the impact on motorists is minimised and have therefore moved the closures to ensure it does not coincide with the Silverstone Grand Prix weekend."

On Saturday, 12 July the roundabout will be fully closed with an additional closure on the west side of the interchange including the Mere Way and London Road slip roads.

The council said it would install traffic management on the roundabout and adjoining roads to "ensure the workforce is safe".

Originally the council said the closures would take place overnight on Friday, 4 and Saturday, 5 July.

Butler, a Reform UK councillor, said: "Works are progressing well to improve the Queen Eleanor Interchange."

He said the overnight closures were "essential" and the Silverstone Grand Prix weekend, which is about 15 miles south of Northampton, was "an important large scale event for the area".

The Queen Eleanor Interchange is about 450 metres (0.3 miles) from one of the three remaining stone crosses, erected by Edward I in memory of his wife Eleanor of Castile.

The authority previously said the junction had struggled to "keep up" with an increase in traffic and required major upgrades to widen the carriageway, resurface the road and install new traffic signs and signals.

Further overnight road closures are planned for August with the authority due to to announce dates closer to the time.

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