The Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage Site, the most popular visitor destination in Shropshire, is being hit by three months of roadworks to replace its ageing electricity supply.
Traffic lights will be in operation 24 hours a day along The Wharfage, the town’s main shopping street next to the River Severn.
Traders say it will be business as usual and that the work is long awaited.
Tourist
And contractors promise they will do everything possible to minimise disruption and ensure the bulk of the work is completed before the start of the tourist season in April.
The £400,000 Central Networks project, which started this week, involves replacing the 1960s power cables which travel underneath The Wharfage and cross the river below the arch of the historic Iron Bridge.
The aluminium-sheathed cables have an outer bitumen coating which is starting to decompose, causing low voltage and underground explosions which have lifted paving slabs.
Contractors Integrated Utility Services Ltd (IUS) will be digging up the carriageway between Buildwas Road and Tontine Hill, inserting plastic ducting underground and feeding the cable through.
Movement
The cable underneath the Iron Bridge will be removed as part of a longer-term project to stabilise the structure, which is being bent out of shape by land movement, and get rid of all utility supplies slung under its arch.
Ray MacDonald, IUS project manager, said: “We are doing the work in a 12-week window at this time of year to minimise disruption.
“We have a lot to do and have agreed with Telford & Wrekin Council to work through until just before Easter and then have it all tidied up in time for the tourist season.
“We will return later in the year to complete any outstanding work.”
Ironbridge shopkeeper Adrian Cousins said: “I want to tell the public The Wharfage will remain open during the work and it will be business as usual.
“We’ve suffered power problems for many years and this work is definitely needed.”