SAFETY improvements being made to an accident blackspot in south Pembrokeshire are expected to cause traffic disruption until August.

The South Wales Trunk Roads Agency has begun work to improve the A477/A4075 Nash fingerpost junction, which has been the subject of safety concerns in the past.

The central reservation will be widened to provide additional stacking space for turning vehicles. Three-way lights are in operation at the junction.

In February 2012, the Western Telegraph reported that the trunk agency was to look at the safety of the junction, where two people had died the previous year.

The move to review the layout of the Nash fingerpost junction, the turning for Pembroke off the A477, was welcomed by south Pembrokeshire MP Simon Hart at the time.

Mr Hart had lobbied the Welsh Government on behalf of worried residents and Welsh Transport Minister Carl Sergeant has instructed the SWTRA to undertake an “assessment of the performance of the junction."

Speaking in 2012, Mr Hart said: “There is a refuge island in the middle of the road but apparently this is a “ghost refuge” and is only supposed to be used by cars travelling from Pembroke Dock towards Carew who want to turn right to Pembroke.

"If you are turning across the traffic to go from Pembroke to Carew then you are supposed to make the manoeuvre in one go but it just isn’t possible as it’s such a busy road – you’d be waiting there all day.”

A Welsh Government spokesman confirmed the three-way lights will be removed during public holiday periods to avoid traffic congestion.