MOTORISTS are being warned to expect disruption as the sixth phase of essential maintenance works gets started this week.

The work to improve the road surface and bride deck waterproofing will begin on Wednesday evening from 8pm and continue until 6am on Friday, November 30.

The £300,000 project includes the replacement of the road surface, bridge deck waterproofing and new expansion joints to the southern viaduct span section of the bridge and aims to benefit around 13,000 vehicles that use the bridge each day by ensuring road users experience greater journey time reliability, continued safety and comfort.

This scheme is the sixth and penultimate phase of the on-going refurbishment programme of the bridge which includes seven phases in total. As of 2015, 15 spans of the bridge have been refurbished investing over £1.6million in improvement works.

To allow this scheme to take place, there will be a series of full road closures at night to allow mobilisation of the site from 8pm on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

Lane closures will begin on the Northbound lane from 6am on Saturday until Tuesday, October 30th at 8pm where there will be a full closure to allow resurfacing and switching of the traffic management to the Southbound lane. From 6am on October 31, the lane closures will resume until the end of the works.

During the full closure of the A985 Kincardine Bridge the diversion will be as follows: Northbound traffic will be diverted to A876 Clackmannanshire Bridge via Higgins Neuk Roundabout. At Kilbagie Roundabout, traffic will join the A977 to Kincardine with the diversion ending at Longannet (Toll) Roundabout.

Southbound traffic will be diverted from Longannet (Toll) Roundabout via the A977 and at Kilbagie Roundabout will take the first exit onto the A876 Clackmannanshire Bridge. The diversion will end at Higgins Neuk Roundabout.

This scheme has been planned in consultation with Transport Scotland, Traffic Scotland, the emergency services, Kincardine Community Council, Stagecoach, the Road Hauliers Association, the Freight Transport Association, Clackmannanshire Council, Falkirk Council, Fife Council, and Stirling Council.

During lane closures the diversion route will be as follows: Northbound traffic travelling on the A876 will be directed to two dedicated lanes: left hand lane for A876 Clackmannanshire Bridge and right hand lane for A985 Kincardine Bridge. Traffic proceeding to Clackmannanshire Bridge will continue through Higgins Neuk Roundabout unimpeded. A985 Kincardine Bridge traffic will be directed to Higgins Neuk Roundabout where a temporary signalled junction will filter traffic onto the roundabout to control traffic flow. From here, traffic will proceed past works in a single file under temporary traffic signals.

Southbound A876 traffic will stop at the Higgins Neuk Roundabout temporary traffic signals where it will have the option to make a left turn onto A985 Kincardine Bridge or to continue in a southerly direction through the roundabout onto the A876. Traffic travelling southbound on the A985 Kincardine Bridge will travel in a single file past the works under the control of the temporary traffic signals. From here, they will reach Higgins Neuk Roundabout and will give way to traffic on the right.

Traffic journey time monitoring equipment will be used to monitor any traffic delays through the works, with real-time updates provided to the travelling public through variable message signage. Traffic delays are expected during construction, particularly at AM and PM peak times, with a maximum delay of twelve minutes anticipated. Road users are therefore asked to be patient during the works.

Throughout the duration of the works, the pedestrian footways and cycle paths will remain open (even during night-time full bridge closures), although cyclists will be instructed to dismount when using the cycle path across the bridge.

Real-time journey information can be obtained by visiting www.trafficscotland.org or via Twitter: @TrafficScotland