OBRIDGE Viaduct and part of Priorswood Road in Taunton will be closed for three hours this Thursday evening to allow for the road to be surface dressed.

The road will be closed from 7pm to 11.30pm.

As well as surface dressing the road surface specialist operator Kiely Bros will be carrying out footway crack sealing, preparatory drainage, patching and cleaning, as well as post surfacing road markings, studs and high friction surfacing.

Surface dressing is a nationally recognised maintenance technique for sealing a road, improving skid resistance, and preventing water getting under the surface.

This is crucial to help stop potholes forming. It works by coating an existing road surface with bitumen, covering it with stone chippings and then rolling it. It can only be carried out in dry weather, so the programme is flexible, and dates can change at short notice.

Somerset Council’s Lead Member for Highways and Digital, Councillor Richard Wilkins said: “We appreciate there is likely to be some disruption which is why the team is carrying out the work in the evening.

“It’s vital we do this work to prolong the life of the road and cut down on the number of defects to the surface over the winter period.”

This year’s programme is the biggest in at least four years and will see 1,000,000 sqm of road surface dressed, equivalent to 141 football pitches.

This treatment is a greener and more cost-effective form of maintenance, helping to improve the road network whilst emitting significantly less carbon compared to alternative solutions.

For more information and to see the interactive map visit here Surface Dressing (somerset.gov.uk).