TWO-and-a-half months of work to upgrade a busy Southampton road junction starts today.

Engineers will start work to revamp part of Northam Road, at its junction with Union Road and Princes Street today.

Hi-tech monitoring systems will be introduced to help the flow of traffic on Northam Road, which connects the city centre to the east of Southampton.

Modern pedestrian crossing signals will also be brought in, in the hope of improving safety.

But drivers face more than two months of disruption during the project, which is due to end on August 30.

Temporary traffic signals will be used at the junction 24/7 for the duration of the works.

Lane closures will also take place between 9.30am and 3.30pm daily.

Announcing the plans, councillor Jacqui Rayment, Cabinet Member for Environment & Transport, said: “I would like to thank road users in advance for their patience during these essential works.

“As much of the work as possible will take place in the school holidays and outside of rush hour.

“We will be doing everything we can to minimise disruption.”

The work is part of plans to improve the road network to mitigate for the 350 new homes on the £40 million Meridian Waterside site, formerly home to the Meridian TV Studio.

The development is being led by Inland Homes, who are also behind the £100 million, 450 home, Chapel Riverside development.

Inland Homes will fund the upgrade project, which will be carried out by Southampton-based contractors, Blanchard Wells.

City transport chiefs say the design will remain largely the same, although some elements will be changed.

These include the pedestrian signals, which will change from far-sided signal heads to nearside pedestrian signals located at eye level.

Tactile cones will be in place for the visually impaired.

There will also be enhanced pedestrian detection equipment which is able to detect pedestrians at the kerbside.

On the roads, the operation of the vehicle signals will run on a Microprocessor Optimised Vehicle Actuation (MOVA) scheme.

This will prioritise the traffic on Northam Road in both directions, whilst also allowing change to the traffic phases of Union Road and Princes Road when a suitable gap has been created.

The new signal heads will be fitted with modern and more efficient LED lights.