A road junction which has not been in use since October has now reopened following the making of a new layout.

Drivers have had to wait four months for the Park Way junction onto the A229 in Maidstone to be accessible but as of yesterday the road has been open.

This means drivers, once again, have access to a popular route taken to the town centre, the leisure centre, Maidstone Grammar School and Mote Park.

Driving away from the road, the layout has changed from a one lane system to two, with the left lane for left-turning traffic only.

The right lane is for cars wishing to cross over to Armstrong Road – you are not allowed to turn right from the junction.

For traffic heading south on the A229, a third filter lane has been added for traffic to turn right into Armstrong Road.

Temporary lights are still in use.

As part of the works, the turning onto Sheal's crescent, when heading south on the A229, will have its give way signals removed to instead become the road's outside lane.

Traffic heading into town will continue onto the the road as the single inside lane and will no longer be able to split into two.

This part of the works is likely to start after a review of the opening of the Armstrong Road crossroads.

The new layout is one of several changes Kent County Council is looking to make to the Loose Road corridor to help with travel times, traffic flow and air pollution levels.

In March, KCC implemented an Experimental Traffic Regulation Order and closed Cranborne Avenue for a six-month 'experiment' to assess traffic flow leading up to the Wheatsheaf pub.

Following the consultation, a highways officer confessed that the road was never going to reopen.

Its closure falls under a greater plan to install a larger junction at the expense of the Wheatsheaf pub's destruction.

Two further surveys to assess traffic flow at the junction will be carried out before construction work begins, scheduled to start this spring.

The changes to the junction off Cripple Street and Boughton Lane have been paused following a consultation process but a revised scheme to avoid any impact to the lanscaped area in front of Boughton Parade has been developed.

The plan was to open the single southbound lane to two from the ambulance station to allow more turning right traffic to filter out.

A secondary idea being discussed is to add bus laybys to allow traffic to pass stationary buses more easily.

Both ideas are still being discussed and no decision has been made.

The whole A229 scheme is said to cost £5.63 million not including the buying of the Wheatsheaf pub.

The works are being funded through the Maidstone Integrated Transport Package (MITP) which is a wider set of highway schemes, expected to cost £13.9 million in total.

Some £8.9 million has been secured from the Local Growth Fund (LGF), obtained from the South East Local Enterprise Partnership, while the remaining costs will be funded by Section 106 Developer Contributions from nearby housing developments.

The Loose Road corridor scheme will be let as a single construction contract with the LGF contribution being £3.7 million and the developer contributions being £1.93 million.