Major changes to road

Improvements costing millions of pounds are to be made to the A1 in the East Midlands.

Three roundabouts in the region will be removed as part of the pilot project.

Two junctions will also be improved in the Grantham area.

Roundabouts will be removed at Gonerby Moor and Colsterworth, and replaced with separate junctions.

Flexible planning

The roundabout at Markham Moor in Nottinghamshire, will also be improved in the same way.

The Highways Agency says the contract for the work is one of the first of its kind in the country.

It says the "Early Design and Build" scheme will speed up the project, give better value for money and higher quality road building.

This brings in the contractors earlier on in the planning process which makes it more flexible.

The whole project is expected to cost around £45m and start in 2005.