Drivers face a near 80-mile diversion next week as overnight road works on the A76 at New Cumnock get underway from Thursday.
A full closure of the A76 between Lime Road and River Afton Bridge, New Cumnock, will be in place between 8pm and 6am each night from Thursday, August 4 to Friday, August 12.
A signed diversion will be in operation, but the official route means drivers face an added one hour and 52 minutes on to their journey due to the 76.1 mile detour.
Traffic will be diverted via the A702 at Carronbridge to Abington Services and will then follow the B7078 and A70 to Cumnock. From here, a local diversion will be in place for vehicles approaching New Cumnock from the south-west via the B741.
While the A76 closure is in place, additional works will be carried out at Polneul Cottage, west of Kirkconnel on the nights of Wednesday, August 10 and Thursday, August 11.
The road will reopen as normal outwith the above times.
Amey, on behalf of Transport Scotland as part of the network management contract for the south-west trunk road unit, say the £161,000 scheme will benefit around 2,800 vehicles using this route each day.
And that by improving the condition of the carriageway, it will reduce the need for further, more extensive work in future.
This work has been planned in consultation with Transport Scotland, Traffic Scotland, the emergency services, Ayrshire Roads Alliance, New Cumnock community council, local businesses and the local authorities.
All schemes are weather dependent and may be cancelled or rescheduled if weather conditions are not favourable.
•A free Road Work Alerts service is available at https://swtrunkroads.scot/roadwork-alerts/
An email address is all that is required to sign up for the service.
•To report a problem on the network, visit https://swtrunkroads.scot/report-a-problem/
•Real-time journey information can be obtained by visiting www.trafficscotland.org or via Twitter at @TrafficScotland
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