MOTORISTS and residents will benefit from a link road to be built as part of a £9m relief route scheme.

Work is about to start on the Dubmire stretch of the Central Route, relieving traffic from the A1052 through Fencehouses, which spans the Durham/Sunderland county boundary between Bournmoor and Houghton-le-Spring.

It will result in a stretch of road that connects the A182 at Shiney Row with the B1284 road, which runs past Rainton Bridge Industrial Estate, near Durham Wildlife Trust's Rainton Meadows reserve.

The latest phase of the scheme will link Sedgeletch Road, at Fencehouses, with Dairy Lane, at Winter's Bank, Chilton Moor, near Houghton-le-Spring.

Construction is expected to take 20 weeks and the road should be open to traffic in June.

Work on the last phase, at High Dubmire, will include realigning the existing carriageway, drainage, street lighting and utility works.

The scheme is funded by Persimmon Homes, which is building a housing development to the south of the link road.

Mulberry Way, linking the development to Dairy Lane, will also undergo realignment and be extended as building work proceeds on the Persimmon site.

Phil Barrett, director of Sunderland City Council's development and regeneration directorate, said: "This is an important stretch of road which will form a major part of the proposed new Central Route.

"It will reduce pressure on a lot of through traffic in Dubmire and will improve traffic flow across the area."

Work to complete the last phase of the Central Route is expected to begin later in the summer.