Busy Harborough district road will be closed for half a year while a railway bridge is upgraded

Station Road, which runs between Great Glen and Fleckney, will be closed between the junction with Newton Lane and the junction with Kibworth Road from Friday, January 13 until July later this year.

The road will be closed due to work being carried out on a bridge that sits above a rail line. Transport company, Network Rail, will be reconstructing and raising the bridge by just over half-a-metre to clear the way for new electric wires.

The work is part of the multi-million pound Midland Main Line electrification programme, which is currently working to upgrade the route between Kettering and Wigston. The road which the bridge sits on will also be affected by the works, with about 50 metres either side of the bridge needing to be reconstructed.

Commuters’ travel plans will be disrupted by the bridge works, as the road is commonly used by residents of Fleckney, Great Glen and Kibworth when travelling to their place of work.

One Great Glen resident, who asked not to be named, slammed the closure as a ‘nightmare’. He said: “I understand why they’re doing it, but it’s still an absolute nightmare for people like me who use the route pretty much every day.

“I’ve not yet seen the diversion road signs, but if you’re unable to turn left down Wistow Road (coming from the A6) then it’s probably going to add two miles to each and every journey.

“I don’t suppose people living in Newton Harcourt will be especially pleased with it all. The main road through their village is already a rat-run, but it’s going to get even busier – and potentially quite dangerous.”

Network Rail said it has worked closely with Leicestershire County Council to keep disruption to a minimum and has diversion signs in place. Traffic will be diverted through Newton Harcourt before resuming the normal route.

Gary Walsh, East Midlands route director for Network Rail said: “This important piece of work will help us to eventually electrify the route between Kettering and Wigston to deliver a cleaner, greener railway that’s fit for the future. I’d like to thank the community for their patience over the coming months and we’ll continue to work with Leicestershire County Council to reduce the impact of our work.”