TWO months of roadworks are going to hit a major Worcester road - with traffic lights placed at one of the city's busiest routes.

Drivers are being urged to avoid London Road from Monday, where Waitrose is developing a new £20 million supermarket.

Worcestershire County Council is warning motorists that lights will be up at the site from 9.30am - and will remain in place until early April.

It could well lead to significant delays in the city, with a knock-on impact expected on other arterial routes like Bath Road and the City Walls Road.

The upmarket supermarket giant has taken over the site which used to operate as the former Ebenezer Bayliss print works, and is developing a 40,000 sq ft flagship store.

Utility firms have been digging up part of the land outside the entrance in recent weeks, but the work will now be ramped up.

Jon Fraser, head of highways at the county council, said: "The traffic lights are going to be there for a couple of months, unfortunately.

"There are still some discussions to be had on whether we allow them to be there on weekends, that hasn't been decided yet.

"But the lights are going to be there for a while."

From Monday Severn Trent will be laying new pipes underneath the road, which will last for the first four days of the two-way signals being in place.

The project will also lead to the county council dealing with the road surface to resurface the carriageway, create a traffic-light controlled junction directly for shoppers accessing the supermarket and build a splitter island.

Bosses at County Hall say the finish date is scheduled for Thursday, April 7, but it could end sooner.

The National Grid will also take advantage of the lights to undertake what it calls "essential maintenance" to replace all the old gas mains with durable plastic pipes.

It will start in mid-February and run into the second week of March, making the site a hive of activity.

Waitrose secured planning permission for its new store in 2014 from Worcester City Council.

The new store, which is planned to open this summer, will feature a range of John Lewis goods, a coffee shop with outside seating, 285 parking spaces and fish, cheese, meat and patisserie counters.

Once open it will create store wars in the city, with Waitrose competing with Tesco and Asda nearby as well as Sainsbury's, Aldi and Lidl.