A busy Worcester road will be closed overnight tonight - and there’s a 7.5-mile alternative route being put in place.

A stretch of the A449 Malvern Road will be closed for the installation of streetlight ducting from 9pm tonight (Monday, January 10) and is due to reopen tomorrow (Tuesday) at 5.30am.

The part of the road in question is the southbound carriageway between the A4440 Powick Roundabout and Powick village.

An official public notice issued by Worcestershire County Council suggests an alternative route that takes motorists to Powick village via Upton upon Severn, a 17.5-mile diversion.

The suggested alternative route goes along the A4440 Temeside Way to the Ketch Roundabout, then south along the A38 through Kempsey and Severn Stoke before turning right onto the A4104 at Holly Green and into Upton upon Severn.

The diversion then takes you along the B4211 through Hanley Castle and Rhydd, and into Powick via the B4424 through Callow End.

Worcester News readers have called the route “the longest detour possible”.

Some suggested motorists would be better off heading the other way on the A4440 and taking the A4103 Hereford Road to Leigh Sinton. You then turn left onto Stocks Lane and join the northbound Worcester Road at Newland.

Work on Worcester’s Southern Link Road project, which is turning the entire A4440 from junction 7 of the M5 to the Powick Roundabout into a dual carriageway, began in 2019.

It was due to be finished in early 2021 but has been delayed by flooding and Covid.