Work to repair more than 40 miles of drought damaged roads in East Cambridgeshire – including ones in Littleport, Isleham, Wicken, Prickwillow, Stuntney and Haddenham - will start next month.

The scheme, which will include 21 sections of road, has been made possible thanks to a successful joint bid by Cambridgeshire County Council and Peterborough City Council to the Department for Transport.

£3.5million was secured for the scheme, which will repair 10 sections of road affected by extreme weather conditions in Peterborough and another 11 in Cambridgeshire from December until June 2018.

The fund is topped up by both councils bringing the total investment to £6.25 million.

East Cambridgeshire roads that will benefit from the funding, along with approximate timings of the work, are:

• A1101 Mildenhall Rd, Littleport – due to start at the end of January for around six weeks

• B1104 Prickwillow Road, Isleham – due to start in March

• A1123 Stretham Road, Wicken – due to start in March

• B1382 Mile End Road, Prickwillow – due to start in April

• A142 Stuntney, Ely – due to start in April

• A1123 Hill Row Causeway, Haddenham – due to start in May

Most of the work will involve major road reconstruction, which will include repairing down to the foundation layers in some cases. General maintenance of vegetation, drainage, signage and road markings will also be carried out alongside this work.

Although the roadworks will only be carried out during daylight hours, due to the extensive nature of the work, the roads will be fully closed for the duration of each scheme (24 hour closures). Diversions will be signposted and local access maintained wherever possible.

Letters will be delivered to local residents and businesses in advance of the work.

Councillor Mathew Shuterm Cambridgeshire County Council’s chairman of the highways and community infrastructure committee, said: “Following our successful bid we will be repairing roads that have been affected by extreme weather conditions across fenland areas in Cambridgeshire.

“This additional funding will enable us to take a long-term approach to the maintenance of these roads, reducing the need for repeated costly reactive repairs and extra disruption for drivers.”