A roundabout and a main road into a village are set to be closed for 17 days.

One of the main routes into Iwade, near Sittingbourne, will be shut as work continues on the A249 Grovehurst Road Improvement Scheme.

Drivers will not be able to use the road from the junction of Cormorant Road and Grovehurst Road to Swale Way roundabout.

It will shut firstly for seven days from 6am on Monday, July 29 until 10pm on Sunday, August 4.

Then it will close again for 10 days from 6am on Thursday, August 15 to Sunday, August 25.

Jackson Civil Engineering has been contracted by KCC Highways to deliver the £32.7 million scheme.

It says the road needs to be closed so underground ducts can be installed for utility service providers UK Power Networks, BT and Southern Water.

These ducts will carry utility services across the road and then connect to the existing infrastructure.

Drivers from Iwade trying to get onto the A249 will have to use Sheppey Way and the Bobbing roundabout.

Meanwhile, motorists wanting to access Iwade from the Swale Way roundabout or the B2005 will use the Maidstone-bound A249 to head to the Bobbing junction where they can get on to Sheppey Way, Sheppey-bound which takes them to the village.

Due to the A249 Sheppey-bound exit sliproad being closed drivers wishing to travel to Iwade will continue on the A249 and have to use the Ridham Junction roundabout to return Sittingbourne-bound on the A249.

They can then use the exit sliproad at the Bobbing junction where traffic can use Sheppey Way to get to Iwade.

The project is due to be completed in June next year but is at least six months behind schedule.

Work started in September last year to improve the junction by installing a new second bridge over the A249.

Jacksons Civil Engineering said in a statement the delay was partly caused by constraints on traffic management and utility works.

It also pointed to when the Maidstone-bound A249 had to be fully reopened at the end of last year while alternative solutions were found to stop the traffic chaos leaving the Island.

Further problems came when Network Rail undertook urgent repairs to the nearby Kingsferry Bridge.

There were also issues with trapping reptiles found on site which needed to be safely relocated, a KCC statement said.

Based on estimates, the exit and entry sliproads from the Sheppey-bound A249 will reopen in August this year.

This will be around the same time as the new bridge deck is installed.

Traffic management on the A249 is due to be lifted in January 2025 and all other roadworks complete by May 2025.

The project is to help Swale council meet its housing targets.

There are plans for a new estate of 115 homes near the Grovehurst roundabout to help “meet local housing needs”.

The development at Grovehurst Farm in Kemsley already has permission in principle.

It is part of 1,500 houses due to be built in the north-west Sittingbourne area as per Swale council’s local plan.

Already 1,200 homes have been given the nod for farmland north of Quinton, between the Sittingbourne to Sheerness railway line and the A249.

However, the constant road closures while work takes place have been labelled as “beyond a joke”.

Cllr Roger Clark (Con) who represents Bobbing, Iwade and Lower Halstow on Swale council previously branded diversion routes in the area as “terrible” for his ward.

He added: "Although the roundabout is in desperate need of an update, the works are going to make it difficult for the people living in Iwade.”