THIS artist's impression is the first glimpse of what the future holds for a notorious section of one of the region's busiest roads.

Detailed plans for the £4.1 million scheme, on the A64, at Top Lane, Copmanthorpe, were unveiled at a public exhibition in the village's Women's Institute Hall.

Work began on Monday and over the coming months the traffic lights at the Top Lane junction will be replaced, and a new link road and underpass under the dual carriageway will be built.

It is expected to take more than a year to complete the scheme.

The exhibition, which finished its two-day stint at the hall today, included detailed plans, images of the new road layout, plus information about traffic management while the work is under way.

There were also details of the environmental and landscaping work planned as part of the project.

Highways Agency project manager David Phillips said that the Top Lane junction had a history of being one of the worst accident blackspots in the county, a record which the new work was aimed at addressing.

"We had to do something quite drastic," Mr Phillips said.

"The general feeling of the people in the village was for us to get on with it and get it done as quickly as possible.

"But the results of this will certainly be worth waiting for."

He said that the main body of the work on the A64 would begin in September to avoid coinciding with the busy summer holidays.

Updated: 11:03 Saturday, July 28, 2001