IT WAS the £2 million upgrade project which caused drivers months of disruption.

But when the traffic lights at the roundabout between the M27 and the M271 broke yesterday, motorists were surprised it caused minimal disruption.

The news prompted a mixed reaction from Daily Echo readers.

Kain Dear said: “Good, there should never be traffic lights on a roundabout.”

Another, Barry Rinaldi, said: “It happened a couple of weeks ago, too, and it made traffic flow better.

“Drivers probably pay more attention. And no one jumped the lights!”

However, not all agreed that it was an improvement.

Shaun Windeatt said: “It might have been better for traffic coming off the M27 onto the M271, but the queue Northbound on M271 to the roundabout was horrendous compared to normal.”

Highways England sent out an engineer to repair the lights, which control traffic from the eastbound M27 onto the M271.

Road bosses said there was some disruption while the lights were out, but added that traffic had continued to flow.

Highways England did not offer a response to the comments made by Echo readers.

The roundabout was upgraded as part of a £2.3 million project in October 2014.

As part of the work, a third lane on the slip road off the westbound carriageway of the M27 was created, as well as the northbound and southbound approaches to junction on the M271, along with additional traffic lights.

The hard shoulder on the east side of the roundabout was also replaced with a third lane.

At the time it was estimated that 96,000 motorists used the junction every day.

The project was completed in spring 2015.