DRIVERS faced more traffic misery yesterday as a major Old Town route was closed.

Part of Kingshill Road, in the direction of Wootton Bassett Road, was closed for re-surfacing, forcing drivers to find an alternative route.

Many motorists seemed to ignore signs along Bath Road telling them the road ahead was closed and had to do a U-turn at the roundabout at the top of Kingshill.

The temporary closure is expected to end tomorrow, two days sooner than expected.

The council apologised for the inconvenience but said the work was needed.

A council spokesman said: “The work started on Sunday and it is due to end on Wednesday.

“The works will be in place between 9.15am and 6pm until Wednesday for road re-surfacing work.

“There is never a good time to do this kind of work but it does need to be done and we started it on a Sunday for it to have the least disruption.

“We are starting the work at 9.15am, after the rush-hour traffic in the morning to avoid traffic problems in the morning.

“We would do it over-night but then that would affect residents.

“We have continued it for the beginning part of this week to keep the costs down and hope to have it all finished by Wednesday.”

Resident Kirsty Warren, 32, said it hadn’t appeared to have caused too many problems but she had seen a lot of cars turning around at the roundabout.

She said: “I think roadworks will always cause problems but it doesn’t seem to be causing too much trouble today. I think once people are aware of it they will find an alternative route.

“It is a bit of a pain because you have to go a long way round to get to the bottom of Kingshill Road which would normally take two minutes but this work needs to be done.”

An alternative route has been set up via Victoria Road, Crombey Street, Curtis Street, Faringdon Road, Westcott Place and Kingshill Road.